2 replies to this topic

[cocoonman]

Hi everyone,

 

I have just uploaded an essay on my blog, named The Cocoon Project. I believe that cryonics (unavailable to people who are in need, but without means) is not the only rational option for the aspiring immortalists, and that in principle, an individual could preserve the essence of his identity without any outside help. Here I discuss some practical and philosophical issues that the unconventional means of biostasis may raise.

[YOLF]

I suppose if you can feed the cocoon from a self sustaining biosphere such as an aquatic system oslt, it might be possible? But I think what you're missing is that even if croatia doesn't have the money to afford Alcor, they can get the job done for considerably less. There is a "Really Big Dewar" plan that has been proposed, as well as a "Timeship" plan that could bring prices down to around $5,000/patient in the US. Many of these inputs are dependant on the price of labor or locally sourced materials.

 

Perhaps there are some insulation materials that are unobtainium for those in croatia, but perhaps there are alternatives? Other than that, it's steel, concrete, and liquid nitrogen to build a really big dewar. Perhaps for the amount of unobtainium you'll need to build a really big dewar, you could produce it locally under contract? Now you just need 20-50 million Croats and other Europeans to join your endeavor and the power of the masses will give you the chance to be immortal!

 

Alternatively, I don't think we're really that far from achieving immortality... there is just too much delay due to money, what is needed is a Manhattan Beach Project as has been proposed in the past where governments would get involved and make immortality a public service.

[cocoonman]

Perhaps, within hundred years, cryonics will become more popular and the economy of scale will bring the prices down. By that time, I hope to be (safely) in my capsule at the bottom of the sea

 

Right now, cryonics is not unavailable just because of high cost, but also because there is no way of getting (reasonably) good preservation if you are far away from the providers or areas where stand-by teams operate (and most people are). There can be legal issues, hostile environment, uncertainties which concern the conditions of death, etc. If one reads the case reports from Alcor or CI, it is obvious that even those "hard-core" cryonicists, which have re-arranged their lives around the idea, often encounter unexpected problems and get poor preservation.

 

I am not a great believer in the rapture (singularity), and I don't think that significant life-extension is at hand. It would take a colossal amount of effort and resources, which is totally unrealistic. One solution may be to engineer a virus that infects the nervous system and induces existential despair - that would drive people to seek solution for mortality. In the world as it is, most people are very unimaginative and quite content to go into the silent night after a few miserable decades of boring life.

 

Finally, it's not the practical part that should concern us. There are ways to suspend the brain in time and preserve identity, but would the post-humans care to bring back such meager minds? I discussed some possible reasons that they might have to do it, but it is all fanciful speculation and gamble. My mental strategy is to just irrationally hope when the mood allows me, and suppress the doubts, just like the religulous people do.