Taking a page from Pharaoh’s playbook, some of America’s wealthiest individuals are now attempting to take their fortunes beyond the grave – quite literally. The latest trend in estate planning for the ultra-rich involves “revival trusts,” financial instruments designed to preserve wealth for those betting on a scientific long shot: cryonic preservation.
This endeavor, once relegated to the realm of science fiction, has gained traction among a subset of affluent individuals who seem unwilling to accept the finality of death.
Mark House, an estate lawyer working with Alcor Life Extension Foundation, told Bloomberg, “The idea of cryopreservation has gone from crackpot to merely eccentric.” One might argue, however, that the shift is less about scientific progress and more about the power of wealth to normalize extreme ideas.
Take, for instance, Steve LeBel, a 76-year-old retired hospital executive from Michigan. LeBel plans to allocate $100,000 to his revival trust, seemingly oblivious to the astronomical odds against his successful resurrection. “I really want to figure out a solution, otherwise I’ll be in there with my fingers crossed, hoping there’s money left over, 200 years from now, to pay for the resurrection process,” LeBel states, displaying a level of optimism that borders on delusion.
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These revival trusts raise a host of legal and ethical questions that seem almost comical in their absurdity. Can money truly live indefinitely? Are you legally dead if your body is cryonically preserved? What constitutes revival – a fully restored body, or just a functioning brain? The fact that highly paid professionals are seriously debating these questions speaks volumes about the distorting effect of wealth on rational thought or have questionable scruples.
The legal gymnastics required to make these trusts viable are mind-boggling. Some lawyers, like Mark House, consider the hypothetical revived person to be legally distinct from their pre-preservation self. This interpretation conveniently allows the trust to name the revived individual as the sole beneficiary, sidestepping thorny issues of perpetuity laws and estate taxes.
George Bearup, a senior legal trust adviser at Greenleaf Trust, offers a rare voice of reason in this fantastical discourse. “How do you draft for something that could take place in 1,000 years from now? Who knows what the rules will be?” he asks, highlighting the sheer impracticality of these arrangements.
One has to consider more than what the rules will be. Will the United States survive 1,000 year? Will current currency have any value or just be an antiquity?
Despite the obvious pitfalls, an estimated 5,500 people are planning for cryogenic preservation, with about 500 individuals already frozen. This number, while small, represents a concerning trend of wealthy individuals using their resources to indulge in what many would consider a form of high-stakes magical thinking.
Perhaps most troubling is the involvement of tech moguls in this quixotic quest. Jeff Bezos, Sam Altman, Larry Ellison, and Larry Page have collectively pledged hundreds of millions of dollars to companies working on defying death and aging. One can’t help but wonder what is driving their decisions, fear or arrogance?
Jeff Bezos in the 25th Century
Former Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos meets with a freak accident during his trip to space, causing his body to be frozen in time. He is revived in 2491 amidst a deadly war with the armies of Amazon PRIME – a sentient AI created by the company Bezos founded pic.twitter.com/tSC3MVVkv6
— ɖʀʊӄքǟ ӄʊռʟɛʏ 🇧🇹🇹🇩 (@kunley_drukpa) July 20, 2021
As this trend continues, it raises serious questions about the allocation of resources and the societal impact of allowing individuals to hoard wealth indefinitely on the slim chance of future revival.
While everyone has the right to spend their money as they see fit, the pursuit of these far-fetched scenarios by the ultra-wealthy seems not just misguided, but potentially harmful to broader societal interests.
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As the field of cryonics evolves, society will be faced with the ethical implications of allowing such extreme measures of wealth preservation, lest we create a future where the super-rich of centuries past continue to exert undue influence from beyond the grave.
