You are comparing the current state of the art (freezing mammals and rabbits) with what may or may not be theoretically possible, potentially centuries down the line.
How long a rabbit survived upon being revived using current methods is besides the point—how long rabbits (and humans) can possibly survive when revived a long time into the future would be more relevant. Potentially no survival would be necessary at all, if the informational state was uploaded to a different hardware substrate. Not postulating magic, just not postulating anything which would contradict our current understanding of the laws of physics—and even that is more of a lower bound.
Concerning the technological feasibility, all we can say is that we can’t say one way or the other how closely a reconstituted / scanned brain would resemble the original person. There is little indication that a high-fidelity reconstruction is in principle impossible. And a supposed impossibility cannot be established by looking at how long rabbits survive using current methods, molecular biology in its more theoretical variants would be more relevant.
So, the jury’s still out for the “technological viability in the future” part. The “would any agent (group of agents) get to the point where it (they) could revive us, and if so, would it (they) want to, and if so, would we want to be revived that way” are different questions. Let’s not muddle the issues.
Few cryonicists expect to be revived if Earth is rendered uninhabitable during World Wars III to X. Or if the facility in which they were stored went bankrupt, and the cadavers thrown out. Or if the facility were destroyed in some natural disaster (building on tectonic fault lines is a dumb long-term plan).
Also, few cryonicists would want to be revived by some uncaring alien civilization stumbling upon our remains, and reanimating us to test the pain endurance of 21st century human specimens. Maybe for whatever reasons resources would be scarce, and revival and retraining frozen Homo-heidelbergensis-equivalents may be prohibited (although it stands to reason that if the capabilities to do so in the first place are there, energy isn’t an issue anymore. There’s plenty around, after all).
There’s a danger of being revived just to serve as some sort of living exhibit, or to be reconfigured into a database, either inert with no consciousness, or forced to relive selectively looped memories over and over (a sort of cryonics-based simulation argument). Most cryonicists would probably count such a successful revival as a failure.
Yet for all that, you mention a US-amendment as if it could be relevant at that future point in time? Historically, the dominating constant has been hard to predict change. There are many future scenarios in which you’d want to have been frozen, and many in which you wouldn’t. It’s not a large monetary investment. Why not? People spend more on experimental cancer treatments, or antibodies that give them a few additional weeks on average.
When I’m in my own galaxy, I’ll think back on you, and maybe construct a best-guess facsimile based on your comments, invested into the body of Statler or Waldorf (which would you prefer?). See you then!
You are comparing the current state of the art (freezing mammals and rabbits) with what may or may not be theoretically possible, potentially centuries down the line.
How long a rabbit survived upon being revived using current methods is besides the point—how long rabbits (and humans) can possibly survive when revived a long time into the future would be more relevant. Potentially no survival would be necessary at all, if the informational state was uploaded to a different hardware substrate. Not postulating magic, just not postulating anything which would contradict our current understanding of the laws of physics—and even that is more of a lower bound.
Concerning the technological feasibility, all we can say is that we can’t say one way or the other how closely a reconstituted / scanned brain would resemble the original person. There is little indication that a high-fidelity reconstruction is in principle impossible. And a supposed impossibility cannot be established by looking at how long rabbits survive using current methods, molecular biology in its more theoretical variants would be more relevant.
So, the jury’s still out for the “technological viability in the future” part. The “would any agent (group of agents) get to the point where it (they) could revive us, and if so, would it (they) want to, and if so, would we want to be revived that way” are different questions. Let’s not muddle the issues.
Few cryonicists expect to be revived if Earth is rendered uninhabitable during World Wars III to X. Or if the facility in which they were stored went bankrupt, and the cadavers thrown out. Or if the facility were destroyed in some natural disaster (building on tectonic fault lines is a dumb long-term plan).
Also, few cryonicists would want to be revived by some uncaring alien civilization stumbling upon our remains, and reanimating us to test the pain endurance of 21st century human specimens. Maybe for whatever reasons resources would be scarce, and revival and retraining frozen Homo-heidelbergensis-equivalents may be prohibited (although it stands to reason that if the capabilities to do so in the first place are there, energy isn’t an issue anymore. There’s plenty around, after all).
There’s a danger of being revived just to serve as some sort of living exhibit, or to be reconfigured into a database, either inert with no consciousness, or forced to relive selectively looped memories over and over (a sort of cryonics-based simulation argument). Most cryonicists would probably count such a successful revival as a failure.
Yet for all that, you mention a US-amendment as if it could be relevant at that future point in time? Historically, the dominating constant has been hard to predict change. There are many future scenarios in which you’d want to have been frozen, and many in which you wouldn’t. It’s not a large monetary investment. Why not? People spend more on experimental cancer treatments, or antibodies that give them a few additional weeks on average.
When I’m in my own galaxy, I’ll think back on you, and maybe construct a best-guess facsimile based on your comments, invested into the body of Statler or Waldorf (which would you prefer?). See you then!