Unusual circumstances
of death make initial preservation more likely to fail.
Cryonics companies also wouldn’t want to do anything with such cases,
to avoid reputational and legal trouble.
Other than that,
I think cryoprotectant and other such things are irrelevant,
but warm time could be crucial at unknown timescales.
Something could go wrong with storage later
(pre-singularity chaos, including of financial nature,
legal action against the cryonics company,
technical problems).
And finally doom, where future AGI doesn’t bother waking anyone up.
At least there are some years pre-singularity left.
And if it’s not doom, revival might be expensive
given how few people are suspended
(uploading is going to be cheaper).
There would need to be a research project just for this,
possibly individual research projects for each patient.
Alignment might only be partially successful
in the sense that it’s not total doom,
but AGIs still take most of the Future for themselves,
leaving relatively little to humans.
So even if it’s trivial for a superintelligence
in the sense of inevitability of success
(assuming little warm time before initial preservation,
and getting to this point through all the intervening risks),
it might still be expensive in terms of wealth
that individual humans end up holding,
creating a need to wait
until the superintelligent research necessary for revival
becomes cheap.
Finally, revival might happen with sufficient delay
after general uploading,
with cryonauts ending up in a culturally distant future,
if biological existence ends up not being affordable for humans
(otherwise some would choose to remain biological
and there will still be a slow culture that won’t change too much
by the time superintelligent research needed for revival
is cheap enough).
I’m not sure if you are trolling me, but I will answer honestly. There are way too many uncertainties in the future. We might develop the technology to resucitate people in the future, or we might not. Right now, doing what you suggest is playing Russian roulette with a gun that might well be fully loaded.
I’m not, what makes it unlikely? Would it prevent an AGI from reviving me, too?
Wait But Why’s Why Cryonics Makes Sense is a great overview. Some reasons that come to my mind:
Issues with the initial preservation
Preservation doesn’t last
We never develop the technology necessary for revival
Social reasons why future generations don’t choose to revive
Legal reasons why future generations don’t choose to revive
The cyronics organization having financial issues
Humanity is wiped out by one of the many existential risks we face
Also, I collected some these data points in the past regarding what various people who I respect think about the probability of revival:
Steven Harris (Alcor): 0.2-15%
Michael Perry (Alcor): 13-77%
Robin Hanson: 6%
Experienced LWers: 15%
Inexperienced LWers: 21%
Ralph Merkle: >85% (conditional on things like good preservation, no dystopia, and nanotech)
A lot of people don’t give numbers because it’s too speculative. (Ben Best)
69 super smart leading scientists say that it’s a “credible possibility”. (Although there’s suspiciously few neuroscientists)
Note that these predictions are all however many years old and the authors might have since changed their minds.
Also: Metaculus gives 4% for revival happening before 2050, and 5% for personal revival.
Unusual circumstances of death make initial preservation more likely to fail. Cryonics companies also wouldn’t want to do anything with such cases, to avoid reputational and legal trouble. Other than that, I think cryoprotectant and other such things are irrelevant, but warm time could be crucial at unknown timescales. Something could go wrong with storage later (pre-singularity chaos, including of financial nature, legal action against the cryonics company, technical problems). And finally doom, where future AGI doesn’t bother waking anyone up. At least there are some years pre-singularity left.
And if it’s not doom, revival might be expensive given how few people are suspended (uploading is going to be cheaper). There would need to be a research project just for this, possibly individual research projects for each patient. Alignment might only be partially successful in the sense that it’s not total doom, but AGIs still take most of the Future for themselves, leaving relatively little to humans. So even if it’s trivial for a superintelligence in the sense of inevitability of success (assuming little warm time before initial preservation, and getting to this point through all the intervening risks), it might still be expensive in terms of wealth that individual humans end up holding, creating a need to wait until the superintelligent research necessary for revival becomes cheap. Finally, revival might happen with sufficient delay after general uploading, with cryonauts ending up in a culturally distant future, if biological existence ends up not being affordable for humans (otherwise some would choose to remain biological and there will still be a slow culture that won’t change too much by the time superintelligent research needed for revival is cheap enough).
I’m not sure if you are trolling me, but I will answer honestly. There are way too many uncertainties in the future. We might develop the technology to resucitate people in the future, or we might not. Right now, doing what you suggest is playing Russian roulette with a gun that might well be fully loaded.