Cryonics has a number of denial issues like that. Mike Darwin addresses the neuroscience one on his Chronosphere blog with his Cryonics Intelligence Test, though I don’t think you can still access the reference materials (a mass of scientific papers he sent to various participants, myself included):
The persistence in invoking Drexler’s “nanotechnology” as the Green Lantern’s Ring solution to revival problems, when people can see after 30 years that the idea turned out sterile. It also sounds made-up now, like invoking “warp field mechanics” or something from Star Trek. This does not help to establish cryonics as a serious idea. with knowledgeable people.
The coming breakdown in institutional continuity in cryonics organizations as the members in cryonics’ founding generation die and presumably go into suspension, while we seem to lack younger people ready to maintain something analogous to the “apostolic succession” in christian culture to keep the organizations functional over the coming decades and centuries. Or if you come from a Jewish background, ponder Exodus 1:8 and its consequences: “Now there arose up a new king over Egypt, which knew not Joseph.” I’d like to see an effort starting soon to establish a leadership hierarchy about three layers deep, and with about a generation between each layer, so that, say, the tested and competent leaders in their 60′s cultivate and vet leaders in their 40′s, and together they cultivate and vet potential leaders in their 20′s. (Lather, rinse, repeat.)
And I don’t understand the implied business model in these cryonics revival trusts. Supposedly some very wealthy cryonicists want to tie up hundreds of millions of dollars in these trusts, while relying on financially threadbare cryonics organizations to try to keep them in suspension for however long it takes to try to revive them according to the standard model of good, rejuvenated physical and cognitive health. This sounds like the Gnomes’ business model from that famous South Park episode.
Further down the line, if newer, more capable cryonics organizations come online, they will tend to marginalize the ones we have now, especially that duct-tape operation founded by Robert Ettinger up in Michigan, unless the leaders in the older organizations can find the resolve and the resources to improve their services and stay competitive.
From a technical standpoint, how hard is it to learn cryogenics? Is it the sort of thing you’d have to attend a few years of school for? Or could you it be a DIY job, if you had enough money?
Alcor keeps a list of cases on their website. I’ve only read the ones linked to me as “horror stories”, but it seemed blatantly obvious that it’s a DIY job being done by people with minimal familiarity with the technical and managerial aspects involved. It’s entirely possible that perspective is biased by the specific ones I read, but it’s definitely not anything that (currently) requires a degree, and my perspective was that you could probably get trained up to Alcor’s “state of the art” in a few weeks plus participating in a couple of actual preservations for practice.
Cryonics has a number of denial issues like that. Mike Darwin addresses the neuroscience one on his Chronosphere blog with his Cryonics Intelligence Test, though I don’t think you can still access the reference materials (a mass of scientific papers he sent to various participants, myself included):
http://chronopause.com/index.php/2012/05/06/take-the-cryonics-intelligence-test/
http://chronopause.com/index.php/2012/05/20/cryonics-intelligence-test-responses/
Other issues:
The persistence in invoking Drexler’s “nanotechnology” as the Green Lantern’s Ring solution to revival problems, when people can see after 30 years that the idea turned out sterile. It also sounds made-up now, like invoking “warp field mechanics” or something from Star Trek. This does not help to establish cryonics as a serious idea. with knowledgeable people.
The coming breakdown in institutional continuity in cryonics organizations as the members in cryonics’ founding generation die and presumably go into suspension, while we seem to lack younger people ready to maintain something analogous to the “apostolic succession” in christian culture to keep the organizations functional over the coming decades and centuries. Or if you come from a Jewish background, ponder Exodus 1:8 and its consequences: “Now there arose up a new king over Egypt, which knew not Joseph.” I’d like to see an effort starting soon to establish a leadership hierarchy about three layers deep, and with about a generation between each layer, so that, say, the tested and competent leaders in their 60′s cultivate and vet leaders in their 40′s, and together they cultivate and vet potential leaders in their 20′s. (Lather, rinse, repeat.)
And I don’t understand the implied business model in these cryonics revival trusts. Supposedly some very wealthy cryonicists want to tie up hundreds of millions of dollars in these trusts, while relying on financially threadbare cryonics organizations to try to keep them in suspension for however long it takes to try to revive them according to the standard model of good, rejuvenated physical and cognitive health. This sounds like the Gnomes’ business model from that famous South Park episode.
Further down the line, if newer, more capable cryonics organizations come online, they will tend to marginalize the ones we have now, especially that duct-tape operation founded by Robert Ettinger up in Michigan, unless the leaders in the older organizations can find the resolve and the resources to improve their services and stay competitive.
Did I miss the paper where it was shown not to be workable, or are you basing this only on the current lack of assemblers?
From a technical standpoint, how hard is it to learn cryogenics? Is it the sort of thing you’d have to attend a few years of school for? Or could you it be a DIY job, if you had enough money?
Alcor keeps a list of cases on their website. I’ve only read the ones linked to me as “horror stories”, but it seemed blatantly obvious that it’s a DIY job being done by people with minimal familiarity with the technical and managerial aspects involved. It’s entirely possible that perspective is biased by the specific ones I read, but it’s definitely not anything that (currently) requires a degree, and my perspective was that you could probably get trained up to Alcor’s “state of the art” in a few weeks plus participating in a couple of actual preservations for practice.