Hi everyone,
I’m new to the forum. Some great stuff here and I’ve learned a lot. Personally, I’m still rapa-curious because of financial constraints and risk aversion, although I share your goals, and will likely look into hopping on the rapamycin train in the coming years.
I’ve noticed that there isn’t much discussion about cryonics or brain preservation here. I’m curious as to why that is? Are there any particular reasons why people don’t seem to be interested in this topic?
Here’s my reason for being surprised. Rapamycin is being studied as a potential life-extension drug in humans. There is also lots of discussion about other speculative life-extension supplements/medicines here. However, rapamycin is also pretty much unproven in humans. So, it only really makes sense if one is willing to take a financial risk on an unproven product.
Cryonics/brain preservation is a different kind of life extension that is also wholly unproven. It is basically the gamble that if one preserves themselves upon dying, future technology will be able to bootstrap (a) a cure to what killed you and (b) the ability to revive people who are preserved with contemporary technology. Most likely, if revival ever comes to fruition, the technology would involve AI and things that are difficult for us to imagine today.
Actually, cryonics/brain preservation is, in a sense, lower risk than rapamycin and many of the supplements discussed here, because it only starts when you’re dead anyway. There is no concern for side effects, so less to lose! (Unless you’re more concerned than most about worse-than-death outcomes upon revival, which most people do not seem to be, but that would make sense).
There are some relatively low-cost options out there for cryonics. Cryonics Germany is free. Oregon Cryonics has options from $1000-$28,000. Cryonics Institute costs about $30,000.
There is some overlap between the fields. For example, James Clement was a former board member at Alcor and he is now running trials of the efficacy of rapamycin at his nonprofit Betterhumans.
So I’m curious: what do you all think about cryonics/brain preservation? Any interest in pursuing it for yourself?
Curious to hear any thoughts! =)