The idea that cryonics costs “hundreds of thousands of dollars” would appear to be one of those ideas that sounds so truthy that you cannot eradicate it no matter how many times you repeat it. If you’re young and you go with the cheapest option, you’re going to pay maybe $150/year for way more life insurance than you need, plus $120/year or $1250 upfront for Cryonics Institute membership; and of the life insurance, $50,000 to CI when you actually die.
I’ve spoken to several people about their cryonics insurance lately, and most (those around 40 years old) are paying more than $100/month. Those in their 20s pay a lot less.
Insurance companies are not going to give you a life insurance policy that costs you less than their inevitable payout. Unlike other insurance policies, they have to pay up on all these policies eventually. The only way that signing up for cryonics this way beats investing your money now and using the proceeds to pay for cryonics later, is that you are covered between now and then.
So it makes sense to defer signing up for cryonics until you think the preservation process is good enough to work.
Life insurance is usually their bet you won’t die early, versus your bet you will. it times out and pays nothing if you’re still alive at some agreed age. They don’t always have to pay up eventually—or there would be no business model. They give you a policy worth a shade less than their expected payout, in the probabilistic sense, with the difference being the margin.
The idea that cryonics costs “hundreds of thousands of dollars” would appear to be one of those ideas that sounds so truthy that you cannot eradicate it no matter how many times you repeat it. If you’re young and you go with the cheapest option, you’re going to pay maybe $150/year for way more life insurance than you need, plus $120/year or $1250 upfront for Cryonics Institute membership; and of the life insurance, $50,000 to CI when you actually die.
I’ve spoken to several people about their cryonics insurance lately, and most (those around 40 years old) are paying more than $100/month. Those in their 20s pay a lot less.
Insurance companies are not going to give you a life insurance policy that costs you less than their inevitable payout. Unlike other insurance policies, they have to pay up on all these policies eventually. The only way that signing up for cryonics this way beats investing your money now and using the proceeds to pay for cryonics later, is that you are covered between now and then.
So it makes sense to defer signing up for cryonics until you think the preservation process is good enough to work.
Life insurance is usually their bet you won’t die early, versus your bet you will. it times out and pays nothing if you’re still alive at some agreed age. They don’t always have to pay up eventually—or there would be no business model. They give you a policy worth a shade less than their expected payout, in the probabilistic sense, with the difference being the margin.