I’m sold on the concept. We live in a world beyond the reach of god; if I want to experience anything beyond my allotted threescore and ten, I need a friendly singularity before my metabolic processes cease; or information-theoretic preservation from that cessation onward.
But when one gets down to brass tacks, the situation becomes murkier. Alcor whole body suspension is nowhere near as cheap as numbers that get thrownaround in discussions on cryonics—if you want to be prepared for senescence as well as accidents, a 20 year payoff on whole life insurance and Alcor dues runs near $200/month; painful but not impossible for me.
The other primary option, Cryonics Institute, is 1/5th the price; but the future availability—even at additional cost—of timely suspension is called into question by their own site.
Alcor shares case reports, but no numbers for average time between death and deep freeze, which seems to stymie any easy comparison on effectiveness. I have little experience reading balance sheets, but both companies seem reasonably stable. What’s a prospective immortal on a budget to do?
That saves about half the life insurance cost while leaving the Alcor dues the same, dropping the cost from ~$200/month to ~$140/month. This doesn’t make it a clearly preferable option to me.
If I recall correctly preservation of the brain is supposed to be easier and on average of better quality with the decapitated option (I know I’m using the uncool term) than the whole body option.
For what it’s worth, I’ve been finding Alcor to be bureaucratic and very slow to respond. I’ve been trying to sign up (from Australia) for several months and am not over the line yet.
Ask A Rationalist—choosing a cryonics provider:
I’m sold on the concept. We live in a world beyond the reach of god; if I want to experience anything beyond my allotted threescore and ten, I need a friendly singularity before my metabolic processes cease; or information-theoretic preservation from that cessation onward.
But when one gets down to brass tacks, the situation becomes murkier. Alcor whole body suspension is nowhere near as cheap as numbers that get thrown around in discussions on cryonics—if you want to be prepared for senescence as well as accidents, a 20 year payoff on whole life insurance and Alcor dues runs near $200/month; painful but not impossible for me.
The other primary option, Cryonics Institute, is 1/5th the price; but the future availability—even at additional cost—of timely suspension is called into question by their own site.
Alcor shares case reports, but no numbers for average time between death and deep freeze, which seems to stymie any easy comparison on effectiveness. I have little experience reading balance sheets, but both companies seem reasonably stable. What’s a prospective immortal on a budget to do?
Why not save some money and lose what’s below the neck?
That saves about half the life insurance cost while leaving the Alcor dues the same, dropping the cost from ~$200/month to ~$140/month. This doesn’t make it a clearly preferable option to me.
If I recall correctly preservation of the brain is supposed to be easier and on average of better quality with the decapitated option (I know I’m using the uncool term) than the whole body option.
For what it’s worth, I’ve been finding Alcor to be bureaucratic and very slow to respond. I’ve been trying to sign up (from Australia) for several months and am not over the line yet.
I second this query. I’ve been meaning to post something similar.