[ExI] donor head

[Brent Allsop]

Great story Spike,
Except the part where you're not signed up yet.
Got to get it done.  Such a relief, for everyone, to finally have that job
done.
I need to get it done for the rest of my family.  Don't want to be without
them, either.

On Wed, Apr 28, 2021 at 12:06 PM spike jones via extropy-chat <
extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:

>
>
>
>
> I heard some news this morning that made my day completely, even before
> breakfast.
>
>
>
> I went out on a stroll and was talking to my neighbor, hell of a nice guy,
> had a bad episode in the hospital 4 yrs ago, doctors errors, kidneys
> failed, they managed to work it back up to about 5% function, medics have
> been keeping him alive (after a fashion) since then with meds and dialysis
> supplementing his limited remaining kidney, but he has been damn sick since
> then.  He is low on the transplant priority list because of his age, and he
> doesn’t grow any younger while he waits and hopes.
>
>
>
> This morning he seemed upbeat way more than usual, more than I have seen
> him in a long time.  Turns out they found a match for his oddball tissue
> type and he is going to get a kidney as soon as they can get the
> arrangements made, possibly as soon as Friday.
>
>
>
> I have long been a registered organ donor, but it occurred to me about 20
> yrs ago that it is in possible conflict with cryonics.  I think the organ
> people harvest what they want before Alcor even gets a chance.  I am not
> currently signed up for cryonics.
>
>
>
> An idea occurred to me.  If humanity ever advances enough to try to upload
> a frozen brain, it is highly likely that the early cases would need to be
> done destructively: we would need to take that brain apart in order to try
> to create a sim of it.  So that first guy would have only one chance
> without the benefit of later technology, and even if it works, all else
> being equal there is no reason to think it better to wake up in 2521 than
> in 2321.  So the Alcor clients suffer from the politeness paradox: After
> you, no after you, no I insist, ladies first, no I insist, I am identifying
> as a man today, after you please…
>
>
>
> OK then, someone hasta volunteer to go first.
>
>
>
> Possible way out of the politeness paradox in the spirit of organ
> donation: I would donate my head to Alcor, understanding that the first
> attempts are likely to fail but may be highly educational for Alcor.  So… I
> gave my bride my heart (figuratively), I give anything else the Stanford
> medics can use including my literal heart, then arrange for Alcor to have
> an experimental head, one which Alcor already knows well because of my
> writings in this forum.  It would allow Alcor to measure how much of me
> made the trip across the centuries: does the uploaded brain write stuff
> like this?  If not, that process didn’t work.  No silly ideas, no spike.
> It ain’t really me.
>
>
>
> This whole notion isn’t as self-sacrificing as it sounds really.
> Currently I am not signed up, so I wouldn’t actually be risking anything
> volunteering to be an experimental donor head, willing to go first.
>
>
>
> In the meantime, nothing can happen today which would turn it into a bad
> day, after learning that my neighbor is likely to get well soon.
>
>
>
> Next time you are tempted to despair over some goofy thing, ask yourself:
> are your kidneys working?  Mine are too.  Life is good.
>
>
>
> spike
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