TLDR: I flew to Oregon to investigate Nectome, a brain preservation startup, and talk to their entire team. They’re an ambitious company, looking to grow in a way that no cryonics organization has before. Their procedure is probably much better at saving people than other orgs, and is being offered for as little as $20k until the end of April — a (theoretical) 92% discount. (I bought two.) This early-bird pricing is low, in part, due to some severe uncertainties, in both the broader world and in Nectome's ability to succeed as a business.

Meta:

• I'm Max Harms, an AI alignment researcher at MIRI and author.
• This deep-dive only assumes functionalism and a passing familiarity with cryonics, but no particular knowledge of Nectome.
• I have been a cryonics enthusiast for my whole adult life, and that is probably biasing my views, at least a little. I want Nectome to succeed.
• That said, I am also a rationalist, and I have worked very hard to set aside my wishful thinking and see things with cold objectivity.
• Throughout the essay, I've attached explicit probabilities for my claims in parentheticals. You can click these probabilities to access Manifold markets so we [...]

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Outline:

(02:04) 1. The Problem

(05:43) How to Fix Cryo

(10:50) 2. The History

(10:53) The Brain Preservation Foundation

(15:51) Media Missteps

(18:51) The Long, Slow Science of Getting the Details Right

(20:49) 3. The Team

(24:19) Nectome Needs More Businesspeople

(27:14) 4. The Plan

(30:04) MAiD Services

(32:26) Sendoff

(34:44) Storage

(42:15) Messy MAiD

(44:41) 5. The Money

(49:37) Runway and Investment

(52:04) This Months Sale

(55:41) Life Insurance and Donation/Volunteering

(58:43) 6. The Future

(01:02:22) Competition

(01:06:48) The Premium Niche

(01:08:47) The Singularity is... Here??

(01:11:56) 7. The Bottom Line

(01:17:10) The World Needs Heroes

(01:17:52) Additional Reading

(01:18:11) Prediction Market Roundup

The original text contained 49 footnotes which were omitted from this narration.

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First published:

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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