This science fiction novel is probably the best I’ve seen about the amount of trustworthiness needed to make large-scale cryonics work.
Minor spoilers: It’s set on a planet where large corporations do the freezing and revival and can vote (in politics) as representatives of their frozen clients. Things Go Wrong, and there’s even an echo of the current mortgage crisis.
On the whole, I think Bujold mistrusts any organization which is too large for individual loyalties to make a difference.
Still, it may be worth thinking about what sort of emotional/governmental/economic system it would take to make cryonics work for a large proportion of the population and/or for long periods—and remember that for unmodified humans, mere decades are a long time.
The book is basically unsympathetic to cryonics—sympathetic presentation of characters who choose not to be frozen, and a mention of a society which is so busy avoiding death that it’s forgotten how to live. That last is just sloppy, it’s not supported by the text. At least it’s in favor of non-atrocious methods of rejuvenation, and she may have a point that their development will be pretty gradual. I’m not sure it’s plausible that brain-transplants into clones will be developed well before any aspect of rejuvenation.
It’s a fair-to-middling caper novel, or maybe somewhat better than that. It’s better than the two weakest novels in the series (*Cetaganda* and *Diplomatic Immunity*) and not as good as the best (probably *Memory*, *Brothers in Arms*, and *A Civil Campaign*, though I’m also awfully fond of *Komarr* and *Mirror Dance*). I think it would make sense for the most part even if you haven’t read other books in the series.
*Cryoburn* by Bujold
This science fiction novel is probably the best I’ve seen about the amount of trustworthiness needed to make large-scale cryonics work.
Minor spoilers: It’s set on a planet where large corporations do the freezing and revival and can vote (in politics) as representatives of their frozen clients. Things Go Wrong, and there’s even an echo of the current mortgage crisis.
On the whole, I think Bujold mistrusts any organization which is too large for individual loyalties to make a difference.
Still, it may be worth thinking about what sort of emotional/governmental/economic system it would take to make cryonics work for a large proportion of the population and/or for long periods—and remember that for unmodified humans, mere decades are a long time.
The book is basically unsympathetic to cryonics—sympathetic presentation of characters who choose not to be frozen, and a mention of a society which is so busy avoiding death that it’s forgotten how to live. That last is just sloppy, it’s not supported by the text. At least it’s in favor of non-atrocious methods of rejuvenation, and she may have a point that their development will be pretty gradual. I’m not sure it’s plausible that brain-transplants into clones will be developed well before any aspect of rejuvenation.
It’s a fair-to-middling caper novel, or maybe somewhat better than that. It’s better than the two weakest novels in the series (*Cetaganda* and *Diplomatic Immunity*) and not as good as the best (probably *Memory*, *Brothers in Arms*, and *A Civil Campaign*, though I’m also awfully fond of *Komarr* and *Mirror Dance*). I think it would make sense for the most part even if you haven’t read other books in the series.