[extropy-chat] Cryonics is the only option?

[Eugen Leitl]

On Sun, Apr 15, 2007 at 04:34:47PM +0100, ben wrote:

> There would doubtless be some kind of cost-benefit calculation involved, 
> to decide just who would get this treatment. Unless you're in America, 
> where, i assume, you die if you can't afford whatever life-saving 
> treatment you need (is this correct?).

Emergency care people are required by law to treat anyone, even if they're
not covered (this gets frequently abused, of course). 
 
> A problem i can see here is the usual assumption in the medical 
> profession that there is a point at which you should be allowed to die. 

They won't switch you off if the relatives continue demanding treatment.
It may be living hell on earth, but you will be kept alive.

> Once you've had a good innings in conventional terms, there would likely 
> be little incentive to make great efforts to keep you alive. Perhaps it 
> would be a good idea to try to promote the creation of 
> 'transhumanist-friendly' medical clinics. Probably a bit too much to 
> hope for.

If you have the coin, you can buy any service you need.
 
> Actually, one good reason for removing the brain from a failing body 
> would be for ease of access to all the life-support systems, and ease of 
> swapping them out for others as and when necessary. The 'body' would be 
> whatever physical infrastructure the life-support modules were plugged 
> in to, and you could then take advantage of heterostasis, keeping local 
> conditions optimal for each system separately, without upsetting the 
> rest of the body.

"Moving the brain" while keeping it alive is quite impossible with
current surgery. It is rather difficult to extract even a fixated
brain (a very different animal from live brain) from the cranial 
cavity without injuring it.
 
> It would also make cryonic suspension much easier if that was eventually 

It wouldn't. Just leave the brain in its natural container, see
http://www.alcor.org/Library/html/casereport8504.html
for details.

> decided upon. Plus easier other things, too, like neural interfacing and 
>   eventual uploading.

Gradual/incremental in vivo uploading is quite a way off, since requiring
medical devices assembled by NC-chemistry, aka machine-phase. Working
at below -150 C has definite advantages, since you can work with sections 
of cryogenic water glass, imaging from the surface down abrasively/ablatively,
and process data with macroscale equipment which doesn't have to be in situ.

-- 
Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a> http://leitl.org
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