Yes, people might not try to thaw random people from a hundred years ago. But people who have been unthawed will have some interest in unthawing other people they know. Moreover, each set of cryopatiens will want to unthaw other people they knew. And the most recent cryopatients who are preserved will be people who still have living familes who will have an interest in them. I think you overestimate the problems.
Alcor doesn’t set aside funds for thawing. Even if Alcor wanted to, they wouldn’t be able to bring you back until things were post scarcity.
$200,000.00 Whole Body Cryopreservation ($110,000 to the Patient Care Trust, $70,000 for cryopreservation, $20,000.00 to the CMS Fund).
$ 80,000.00 Neurocryopreservation ($25,000 to the Patient Care Trust, $40,000 for cryopreservation, $15,000.00 to the CMS Fund).
The money you pay goes to 1) Paying to prepare/transport you when you die, 2) Freezing you, 3) Keeping you frozen. That’s it. They’re basically banking on a post-scarcity society to handle paying for your resurrection. The saved $25,000 is definitely not enough to pay for the medical procedure and a nice new vat-form body unless we’re seriously on the way to being post-scarcity anyways.
Maybe if you’ve got still-living family they could all pool their entire earnings for a couple decades to bring back Grandpa, but I still wouldn’t count on it. I definitely wouldn’t count on a chain of thawed people to spend decades of work each step to get the money to thaw me out.
“Clearly some additional money held in trust is needed to provide for contingent costs such as moving the patients, moving Patient Care Fund (PCF) money overseas in the event of inflation, and covering the costs of revival.”
Yes, people might not try to thaw random people from a hundred years ago. But people who have been unthawed will have some interest in unthawing other people they know. Moreover, each set of cryopatiens will want to unthaw other people they knew. And the most recent cryopatients who are preserved will be people who still have living familes who will have an interest in them. I think you overestimate the problems.
Alcor doesn’t set aside funds for thawing. Even if Alcor wanted to, they wouldn’t be able to bring you back until things were post scarcity.
The money you pay goes to 1) Paying to prepare/transport you when you die, 2) Freezing you, 3) Keeping you frozen. That’s it. They’re basically banking on a post-scarcity society to handle paying for your resurrection. The saved $25,000 is definitely not enough to pay for the medical procedure and a nice new vat-form body unless we’re seriously on the way to being post-scarcity anyways.
Maybe if you’ve got still-living family they could all pool their entire earnings for a couple decades to bring back Grandpa, but I still wouldn’t count on it. I definitely wouldn’t count on a chain of thawed people to spend decades of work each step to get the money to thaw me out.
Go to http://www.alcor.org/Library/html/CostOfCryonics.html and search for the header “Determining Safety Reserves For Long-Term Care”. Specifically:
“Clearly some additional money held in trust is needed to provide for contingent costs such as moving the patients, moving Patient Care Fund (PCF) money overseas in the event of inflation, and covering the costs of revival.”
That’s a good point but it makes more sense as a comment to Daniel above. I didn’t say anything about the cryonics orgs thawing people.