Re: CRYO: Reanimation options

Robin Hanson (rhanson@gmu.edu)
Thu, 30 Sep 1999 14:22:07 -0400

Robert B. wrote:
>Nanotech stands a good chance of leaving bankrupt most older
>forms of wealth storage. If you aren't alive to manage it,
>I would doubt you are going to wake up wealthy.

I'm skeptical about this. A broad-based index mutual fund should work fine, as long as the index is remixed frequently to include new upstart forms of wealth. Even a stock fund would probably do fine, as new corporations should be big players in whatever the nanotech economy turns out to value most.

>... It may be distinctly possible that uploading a
>deanimated frozenaut may be feasible *before* bio-nanotech
>reanimation (or downloading into a new body a previous uploaded
>frozenaut).
>
>Do people in thinking about cryonics select between the various
>options I can see: ...
> (b) Reanimate using the first upload technology. ...

That is my choice. I expect the first unfrozen will be uploads, and the first uploads will be the unfrozen. As I've argued before, descendants of the first uploads stand a good chance of grabbing a big chunk of all future wealth, just from selling their labor.

Robin Hanson rhanson@gmu.edu http://hanson.gmu.edu Asst. Prof. Economics, George Mason University MSN 1D3, Carow Hall, Fairfax VA 22030
703-993-2326 FAX: 703-993-2323