A Bet I’d Have Lost
Three and a half years ago I made my largest personal donation ever to the Brain Preservation Foundation, to help fund their Brain Preservation Prizes. Just now they’ve announced that 21st Century Medicine has won their $26,735 Small Mammal Brain Preservation Prize, using a more cryonics-based approach. The other main competitor, Mikula, used the “plastination” approach I favored back then:
I offer to bet up to $5K that plastination is more likely to win this full prize than cryonics. (more)
Good thing for me no one accepted my offer; now it looks more like I’d have lost it. Next we’ll see who wins the Large Mammal Brain Preservation Prize, and when.
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By Robin Hanson · Hundreds of paid subscribers
This is a blog on why we believe and do what we do, why we pretend otherwise, how we might do better, and what our descendants might do, if they don't all die.
Is this a big deal? Does it really change anything about the costs/benefits of cryonics?
It seems to me that a big watershed moment is when scientists manage to extract memories from a cryopreserved dog/cat/mouse, such as recognizing a person or place, or some other learned behavior.
Amazing news!