Thanks for the effortful post Andy! I agree so strongly with the importance of exploring this topic that I am halfway through writing a book on the subject. I’ll respond to the technical points first, than the ethical ones.
Regarding some of the technical points:
Cryopreservation with cryoprotective agents, but without prior aldehyde fixation, produces unavoidable brain shrinkage of around 50%. Although it’s possible that all important structural and biochemical information survives this shrinkage, it’s very plausible that critical synaptic connection information will be lost due to non-uniform shrinkage, tearing or receptor hyperconcentration. Perhaps its better than no option at all, but aldehyde-stabilised cryopreservation provides a much higher guarantee of successful information preservation.
The long-term storage costs of an aldehyde-preserved brain is currently an open question, as we’re unclear on how cold a brain has to be kept to prevent lipid drifting over the long-run. You do need to keep the brains below room temperature, as otherwise the lipids in the neuron cell membranes will slowly drift and obscure your synaptic information. However, it might be possible to slow this sufficiently at only −20C or so, which will make it much cheaper than the current requirement of −135C.
The point of information-theoretic death relative to current legal death very much depends on the condition of the patient during their final dying phase. For someone who suffers a sudden unexpected cardiac arrest, but who was otherwise healthy previously, evidence from the time to synapse degradation following loss of blood supply suggests it may be around 21 hours. For those who already had extensive health issues including poor circulation and liver failure, it may be much sooner. If you’re interested, see my sample chapter below on ‘What is Death?’
Regarding the ethical points, I mostly just agree with your comments. Deciding whether lives are fungible is a key part of the debate between ‘person-affecting’ and ‘total’ utilitarians, and as of-yet unsettled as I see it in the EA community. Even if one takes the total view though, your points that 1) ‘people don’t like dying’ and 3) ‘it might improve their long-term planning’ are very compelling.
I strongly agree with the comment Robin Hanson made as well that the current paucity of uptake both reduces the chances of neuropreservation being successfully implemented (due to a lack of robust infrastructure and auditing) and makes everything far more expensive (due to a lack of economies of scale). I’m fairly certain that at mass scale the preservation procedure could be done for <$5000 and the storage costs would be only a few dollars per year, meaning that it would certainly be a competitive intervention.
If any comment readers are interested in reading a bit more on this, here are two sample chapters from my upcoming book: ‘1. Why Don’t We Get More Time?’ and ‘6. What Is Death?’. Also, I’m currently in the process of looking for a literary agent to get a publishing house to take up my book proposal, so please PM me if you know any agents who would be interested.
Thanks for the effortful post Andy! I agree so strongly with the importance of exploring this topic that I am halfway through writing a book on the subject. I’ll respond to the technical points first, than the ethical ones.
Regarding some of the technical points:
Cryopreservation with cryoprotective agents, but without prior aldehyde fixation, produces unavoidable brain shrinkage of around 50%. Although it’s possible that all important structural and biochemical information survives this shrinkage, it’s very plausible that critical synaptic connection information will be lost due to non-uniform shrinkage, tearing or receptor hyperconcentration. Perhaps its better than no option at all, but aldehyde-stabilised cryopreservation provides a much higher guarantee of successful information preservation.
The long-term storage costs of an aldehyde-preserved brain is currently an open question, as we’re unclear on how cold a brain has to be kept to prevent lipid drifting over the long-run. You do need to keep the brains below room temperature, as otherwise the lipids in the neuron cell membranes will slowly drift and obscure your synaptic information. However, it might be possible to slow this sufficiently at only −20C or so, which will make it much cheaper than the current requirement of −135C.
The point of information-theoretic death relative to current legal death very much depends on the condition of the patient during their final dying phase. For someone who suffers a sudden unexpected cardiac arrest, but who was otherwise healthy previously, evidence from the time to synapse degradation following loss of blood supply suggests it may be around 21 hours. For those who already had extensive health issues including poor circulation and liver failure, it may be much sooner. If you’re interested, see my sample chapter below on ‘What is Death?’
Regarding the ethical points, I mostly just agree with your comments. Deciding whether lives are fungible is a key part of the debate between ‘person-affecting’ and ‘total’ utilitarians, and as of-yet unsettled as I see it in the EA community. Even if one takes the total view though, your points that 1) ‘people don’t like dying’ and 3) ‘it might improve their long-term planning’ are very compelling.
I strongly agree with the comment Robin Hanson made as well that the current paucity of uptake both reduces the chances of neuropreservation being successfully implemented (due to a lack of robust infrastructure and auditing) and makes everything far more expensive (due to a lack of economies of scale). I’m fairly certain that at mass scale the preservation procedure could be done for <$5000 and the storage costs would be only a few dollars per year, meaning that it would certainly be a competitive intervention.
If any comment readers are interested in reading a bit more on this, here are two sample chapters from my upcoming book: ‘1. Why Don’t We Get More Time?’ and ‘6. What Is Death?’. Also, I’m currently in the process of looking for a literary agent to get a publishing house to take up my book proposal, so please PM me if you know any agents who would be interested.