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

[... 24 more sections]

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April 15th, 2026

https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/3i5GMhpGbDwef9Rns/nectome-all-that-i-know

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.

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