Re: Cryonics Thoughts

Hara Ra (harara@shamanics.com)
Sun, 20 Dec 1998 00:26:19 -0800

>Terry Donaghe: terry@donaghe.com:

>1) How long can I be legally dead and still retain my brain state
>(identity)?

Legally, no time. Physically, debatable, at most 24 hours without some sort of cryopreservation process being initiated (and this is debatable too).

> I live in North Carolina and I doubt there's any Cryonics
>centers nearby. If I'm gonna be suspended then dammit, I better be
>there when I'm thawed out, not some brain damaged version of me.
>
The only reliable way to have a good suspension is a death with the cryonics suspension team immediately nearby awaiting your termination. When I have a terminal diagnosis, I plan to be transported to Scottsdale Arizona, the location of Alcor, and to die within 5 miles of Alcor in a rented condo or apartment.

>2) I'm almost 30 now. I fully expect to live at least to 2040 and
>hopefully 2050. What are the chances we won't have developed mature
>nanotechnology by then?
>
I speculate that scanning a frozen brain into a suitable digital data structure may be feasible, but repair of same not yet so. IMO repair is at least 100 years away.

>3) If I name a Cryonics organization as a beneficiary of life
>insurance in order to secure financing for freezing and I expire in
>such a way that I'm not salvageable (explosion, acid, eaten,
>spontaneous combustion, alien abduction, lost at sea, etc.) is there a
>clause to divert the money to my family?

Standard part of the Alcor contract.

>
>4) Is life insurance even Transhuman? I'm betting I'll die before my
>family does. The whole point of being transhuman is that I DON'T
>WANNA DIE!

But you have to get to the time when immortalist technology is routine. The only way I know of is via the Dewar.
>
>I'd almost rather spend the money on staying healthy - supplements, etc.
>
And even if you get 50 more years, you die, dead, the real death.

>Any thoughts? Suggestions?

see above. first step is to SIGN UP! And, please, read the Alcor Web Site.

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| Hara Ra <harara@shamanics.com> | 
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