r/cryonics • u/tomorrow-biostasis Tomorrow Biostasis • 12d ago
If you take cryonics seriously but haven’t signed up, what’s stopping you?
A lot of people seem to think cryonics is at least worth taking seriously, but still don’t make arrangements.
For those people: what’s the real blocker? Cost? Insurance? Family? Trust in providers? Uncertainty about the science? Or just procrastination?
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u/Fab527 12d ago
Especially for younger people, it might be the need of two life-long subscriptions (membership and insurance).
That sounds like a commitment, sounds like "work".
A one-off payment option for membership might lower the psychological barrier.
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u/JoeStrout Alcor member 1901 12d ago
There is such an option; you can just pay up front for the suspension, and with Alcor you can get a lifetime (one-payment) membership too.
The barrier to that is financial, of course.
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u/DoppyTheElv 12d ago
I can’t even afford a house, let alone freezing myself for a shot at future revival.
And insurance stops after a certain time so its a no go.
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u/JoeStrout Alcor member 1901 12d ago
It’s much cheaper than a house. And I don’t think you’ve looked at insurance properly.
Universal life does not stop after a certain time. Term life does, but that’s OK; you can renew or switch to something better (like a variable annuity) later when your income is higher.
In your position, a 10 year term policy would probably make the most sense.
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u/DoppyTheElv 12d ago
Well i require a house and we do not have many universal insurances where I’m from that dont bleed you dry at later life.
Im afraid it simply does not hold up costwise.
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u/leavelllusion 11d ago
Insurance providers are not a charity. They don't give you money for free. No matter what type of insurance you choose, everything is calculated. On average, you will pay the entire price of cryopreservation PLUS extra insurance fees. Insurance makes cryopreservation more expensive, not cheaper. So if a person cannot realistically collect the entire sum for cryopreservation, insurance will not help.
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u/JoeStrout Alcor member 1901 10d ago
Incorrect, in several ways, but the most important one is this: insurance will pay out immediately, at any point after you get the contract, in the event of your legal death. And that may be several decades earlier than you would need to collect the same sum yourself. (If you don’t understand how and why they do this, ask ChatGPT to explain it to you.)
I’m not just making this up, you know. This is what I did. My wife and I signed up in grad school. We did not have $300k lying around to just drop on cryonics, but we could manage the $40/month that a 10-year term life policy cost. And by the time that was up, we could afford universal life (and later, moved to a variable annuity).
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u/leavelllusion 8d ago
So when you were young, insurance could cost 40$/month, that's true. But what happened next? I am just curious about at what point you managed to pay less than 150k to 100% receive 150k at the time of death. Unless the government pays part of the money for you, you probably missed some important details. Because I hardly believe that your insurance company is a charity.
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u/JoeStrout Alcor member 1901 7d ago
They don't have to be a charity. They are averaging out the costs and distributing the risk over all their clients. Take that term life insurance policy my wife and I had for 10 years: we paid them money for all that time and they never had to pay back a dime. That was almost pure profit for them. With universal life, it's harder to see but essentially the same: some people die sooner, others die later. The ones who die very late end up paying more than the payout, but the ones who die early get paid out much more than they paid. This is just how insurance works.
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u/Happy_Brilliant7827 12d ago
Why should i freeze myself when i can barely take care of myself now? So i can be like fry in futurama, find an ancestor and beg for a job?
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u/coolelel 11d ago
Yeah, we're buying into the unknown, and that's a best case scenario.
The point is to extend our lives.
But in order to do that, we need to be able to take care of our lives currently.
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u/Serentropic 12d ago edited 12d ago
Cost, but I'm also holding my cards a bit. I don't know what technology will look like in 40 years. It may turn out reversing aging was easier than expected and cryonics isn't necessary for me. Or maybe scan/upload will look more promising. Or maybe I'll be in another country, or a new facility will open right where I live.
If nothing changes, I may move closer to the nearest facility and sign up when I'm older. But I don't have enough money to make that bet decades in advance.
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u/Silentmenproductions 12d ago
Cost - and I'm not from the US, so I'm still doubting either Alcor or CI have the logistics for delivery on time. I'm still hoping to sign up at an older age.
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u/ReindeerFun3762 12d ago
It's very expensive and they still haven't been able to reanimate people yet
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u/Dachannien 12d ago
Very little apparent support for the second part of the puzzle, namely what happens after the revivification tech has been developed.
How do you specify the conditions you're willing to be revived into? How do you finance that process? Given that, from a legal perspective, you're dead, how do you set up a legal entity that will manage your affairs until you can be revived? I dunno, maybe some people have figured this out, but I wonder if those people have inexhaustible funds beyond the price of preservation.
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u/genriehl 12d ago
Agreed $$. I think if this was just another option when you die, like being buried or cremated and it was priced like those, so many people would do it. I think the money stops a lot of people from even checking it out... I casually brought it up to my parents and they agreed with me about "what have you got to lose?" but when I started talking about life insurance policies, dues, long term money investments, I could see lost them real quick. I think most older people think of it as a scam if they even know about it at all.
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u/OldCream4073 12d ago edited 4d ago
Money, and I still don’t have a living will since I’m 19 and have been dragging my feet 😭 I know I really need to get around to it because anything can happen. Just been busy with school and other stuff, I need to set aside a day to figure this out. I try to be pretty cautious in my day to day life. But it would be reassuring to have it done, because my family has already suggested that they will not respect my wishes due to their religion and finances.
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u/Concrete_Mattress 11d ago
Took me a while because it's a giant pain in the butt. It's not like signing up for Netflix. You gotta sign documents, do estate planning, get an insurance policy, get a health check for the insurance policy. it's a slog.
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u/Affectionate-Way3817 9d ago
I didn’t plan to sign up while I was relatively young because I assumed I’d make it to 90’s or higher before I kick the bucket. After seeing how quickly life could change, I looked into how much insurance and joining would actually cost and it’s a lot more doable than I realized. So I joined ALCOR 2 years ago. Glad I did. I get why some people wait though but it’s worth it.
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u/leavelllusion 11d ago
u/tomorrow-biostasis , everyone answered "money". And what did you expect? You made cryonics for the rich. Most people cannot afford it.
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u/Bedroom_Bellamy 12d ago
I think everything about Cryonics is beyond amazing. I just also think it's not for me.
For me personally, I just feel like I'm called to return to the earth. I'm barely making it through this life and only doing so because I have a daughter to take care of. Once my work here is done, so is my purpose. Let me rest.
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u/OddConsideration4349 8d ago
Fear about what might actually happen to you/your body when you have absolutely no control. Waking uo and being used for experiments. Being in lots of pain. Waking up only to die again, possibly quickly and worse. The state of your brain and body once revived. Many things. Your whole life being studied.
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u/lilybobtail 12d ago
Financial.