I need to set up a trust, so that when I enter coldsleep (I’m not planning on dying), I will have funds for when i am eventually revived. Right now, I’m thinking that 2503 would be a good year to emerge from my centuries-old slumber…but how do I craft a will and set up a trust that will endure for almost 4 centuries? I need topnotch legal advice…and my trustees will span several generations…
It is very vexing-but are there precednts? For example, Ben Franklin’s estate is still being administered (by the Franklin Institute of Boston)-and he has been dead over 200 years.
How should i o about this?
WTF?
As a hedge, I’d take some things that are smalll, but likely to be very valuable in the future, and hide them where you will be able to find them. Say, a box of mint condition, very limited production gold coins. Seal them up, head out into the boonies somewhere where you can triangulate accurately with some permanent structures, and bury them deep. While you’re at it, put some copies of personal items you’d like to have in the future in there - photos (in sealed bags with a dessicant), identification, etc.
I’m not sure this question belongs here.
I don’t see a factual answer to this question. It’s more opinion.
Off to IMHO.
DrMatrix - GQ Moderator
You need the following items:
- Coffee Can
- Shovel
Forget the lawyers. Pack of theiving snakes they are.
Yes, forget the lawyers. Give the money to me. I’ll invest it soundly and form a trust fund for your eventual return. Or I could just spend it all on gumball machines.
All I could think while reading this was,
“And all this from a guy named Ralph”
haha
Now if you’re desperately serious…this isn’t funny anymore.
You do know that cryogenic freezing is impossible for most mammals due to molecular breakdown right? Our cells do not uphold as well as plant cells…hence plants being around longer than us.
Um, this is wierd. I’m hushing up now.
Here I’m thinking, ‘Preparation for Immortality’, and my mind says: gray underwear, unless you prefer commando.
Of course, a big problem is…what if the economy changed greatly between now and your reanimation? Maybe global communism will have taken hold, or something, and your money would have become worthless (or been nationalized.)
By the medical science is able to revive you (assuming they ever are, which is itself highly doubtful), you’ll be such a hopeless anachronism that you’ll totally be unable to cope in society. Imagine a 1st century AD peasant trying to find a job in contemporary America, and you know what your situation would be like. Hopefully, some historians will support you in exchange for frequent interviews about the events and lifestyle of your times.
More likely the cyro company will have gone insolvent years before you can be revived, and incinerate your remains. A judge will release them from whatever contract they have with you, since you ain’t coming back, and there’s no one who will sue on your behalf anyway.
If it’s immortality you want, go for religion. No gurantees for the strict rationalists, but no solid refutations either.
If you’re at all interested in the immortality fantasy, check out The First Immortal for ideas on how to prepare and many other consequences of immortality. All sci-fi based, but an interesting read. Ironically, the main character is named Benjamin Franklin Smith.
Cold sleep is wussy immortality. Go find the holy grail like the rest of us.
Or just wait. By 2030, it is predicted the average lifespan will be 150, by 2050, 200. After that, well, the sky is the limit I suppose. Though I would say that as the older you get, the likelyhood of dying in an accident becomes greater. (though not as bad as some naysayers seem to caculate) Upper limit that chance dictates would probably only be 500-1000 years, but who knows, you might get lucky, or in 500 years they may have the ability to lower the chances or prevent against sudden death more efficiently. (like damage resistant organs, bone transplants that are harder and more efficient. (to prevent skull fractures)
According to my future calendar, matter replication is invented in 2477, setting the stage for your eventual re-incarnation from coldsleep, though it isn’t until the turn of the century that the process is perfected for use on human tissue. While this is good news for the generations of cold-sleep preserved individuals who are in need of miracle technology to restore them to live, it’s something of a bummer for you personally because your investment consisted of material goods such as gold, silver and gemstones that are easily replicated with the new matter replicators. Pity you didn’t think to preserve yourself with historically valuable data of our life, our times, and current world conditions. Furthermore, in the intervening half-millenium, your Y chromosomes have so seriously degenerated that they are no longer able to replicate you a male human body from raw materials, so you’re in for a bit of a shock when you wake up.
I’m just off to hop in my time machine to take a Polaroid picture of your expression when they bring you out of coldsleep…
FISH
Whatever you do, don’t get buried in those wide-legged jeans that show your butt crack.
laughing hysterically from punditlisa
Ya know, why don’t you just give your money to a foundation, charity, or other good cause and have them publish a memorial of thanks. That way, at least your name would be around. It would be in a dusty library, but it would be around.
Worked good for Nathaniel Hawthorne.
Better yet…arrange to have your frozen corpse stored in a location that’s hard to get to, and would require no mechanical intervention to keep you frozen—like, say, the middle of Antarctica; or the Austrian Alps; or a Deep-Space probe. (For the probe, you might want to send just your head.)
That way, if and when your body (or head) is rediscovered by humanity, it’ll likely be so far in the future that they’ll have the technology to bring you back to life.
Or, more likely, just put your icy husk in a nice museum somewhere, as a priceless historical curiosity. (You could do worse. And at least you’d be remembered.)
You need a purpose. Like insulting every living person in the universe–in alphabetical order.