If you were signing up for a health-insurance program which included coverage for cryonics by default, along with other available treatments for severe injuries, would you opt out of that part of the coverage, and ask to be embalmed or cremated rather than frozen? What if it cost extra to do so?
Probably not. I wouldn’t seek out such a plan, and the way things are now, such a plan would cost far more than other plans, so I wouldn’t buy it. But things may be different in the future.
What I mean is, if the plan which otherwise provided all the benefits you wanted for the least cost also included cryonics (as some sort of silly package deal, due to market forces otherwise beyond your understanding) how much would it be worth to you to have the opportunity to randomly get hit by a bus someday and not wake up at all?
Not much, and possibly a negative amount (meaning that I’d prefer the cyronics coverage); I’ll have to think about it when the time comes.
Really, a lot depends on whether my relatives and friends have also signed up for cyronics. If the situation you describe ever exists, it will probably only be when cryonics has become normal, in which case it’s much more likely that I will want it for myself, thanks to having friends waiting for me in the future.
Heck, getting involved in Less Wrong meet-ups might be enough! I find that hard to predict (and unlikely to be tested soon, given where I live and how full my social life is now).
If you were signing up for a health-insurance program which included coverage for cryonics by default, along with other available treatments for severe injuries, would you opt out of that part of the coverage, and ask to be embalmed or cremated rather than frozen? What if it cost extra to do so?
Probably not. I wouldn’t seek out such a plan, and the way things are now, such a plan would cost far more than other plans, so I wouldn’t buy it. But things may be different in the future.
What I mean is, if the plan which otherwise provided all the benefits you wanted for the least cost also included cryonics (as some sort of silly package deal, due to market forces otherwise beyond your understanding) how much would it be worth to you to have the opportunity to randomly get hit by a bus someday and not wake up at all?
Not much, and possibly a negative amount (meaning that I’d prefer the cyronics coverage); I’ll have to think about it when the time comes.
Really, a lot depends on whether my relatives and friends have also signed up for cyronics. If the situation you describe ever exists, it will probably only be when cryonics has become normal, in which case it’s much more likely that I will want it for myself, thanks to having friends waiting for me in the future.
Heck, getting involved in Less Wrong meet-ups might be enough! I find that hard to predict (and unlikely to be tested soon, given where I live and how full my social life is now).