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This is: Cryonics signup guide #1: Overview , published by mingyuan on the AI Alignment Forum.
This is the introduction to a sequence on signing up for cryonics. In the coming posts I will lay out what you need to do, concretely and in detail. This sequence is intended for people who already think signing up for cryonics is a good idea but are putting it off because they're not sure what they actually need to do next. I am not going to address the question of how likely cryonics is to work – that's been covered extensively elsewhere.
If you have no idea what cryonics is, or if you want a thorough refresher, I recommend WaitButWhy's Why Cryonics Makes Sense.
Biases
This sequence is US-focused, since I went through the process in the US. It's also somewhat Alcor-biased, since I chose Alcor quite early on in the process. However, I've collaborated with both non-US cryonicists and people signed up with the Cryonics Institute, so I'm confident there will be useful information no matter where you are or which institution you choose to keep you in a vat of liquid nitrogen.
Epistemic status
I had intended to polish this sequence more before publishing it, but it was suggested to me that it might be really important to get it out ahead of fourth-wave COVID, so I'll be releasing a new post every Tuesday starting today. As a result, I'm not as completely confident in all of my claims and decisions as I had hoped to be, and some things are subject to change as I get farther in the process myself. However, points of uncertainty are noted clearly throughout the sequence, and I'm happy to answer any questions about my thought process.
Acknowledgements
Thanks to Connor Flexman, Daniel Filan, Gordon Worley, Mati Roy, Seraphina Nix, and nameless others for letting me ask them endless questions. Thanks also to Eli Tyre and Oge Nnadi for their previous writeups on this topic, from which I borrowed liberally.
Summary of the process
The first thing most people probably want to know is: What do I do now? It turns out to be really hard to figure this out, and I think unnecessarily so – the information is out there, but it's not all written down clearly in one place. This sequence is my attempt to rectify that.
Basic process overview
Here is a basic overview of the cryonics signup process from start to finish:
Preliminary decisions
Neurocryopreservation vs whole-body cryopreservation
Cryonics Institute vs Alcor
Contact an agent to get life insurance
Fill out and submit cryonics membership application
Sign cryopreservation contract
Optional additional paperwork
Keep your policy and membership up-to-date forever
Be cryopreserved upon your legal death
For those who want to get oriented visually, here's a flowchart covering the basics:
Sequence outline
And here is the outline of this sequence:
Introduction (you are here!)
Neurocryopreservation vs whole-body cryopreservation
Cryonics Institute vs Alcor
Intro to life insurance for cryonics
Types of life insurance
Cryonics-friendly life insurance carriers
Cryonics-friendly life insurance agents
The insurance underwriting process
Making it official
Optional additional steps
Actually putting someone in cryostasis (on hold until further notice)
Appendices
You may notice similarities to the process overview above, with the main difference being an outsize focus on paperwork, and particularly life insurance. This is because life insurance is a cesspool of bureaucratic bloat, and I wanted to lay things out really clearly so that you can navigate it without crying as much as I did. Once you've secured your funding method (whether that's life insurance or something else), the rest of the process is very straightforward!
I think the preliminary decisions – on whole-body vs brain and which provider to use –merit a fair amount of consideration as well. I've already ma...
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