Chapter 4: Cryonics is for me, but...

When you decide on cryopreservation, a new question emerges: should your family preserve too? This isn't just about your own continuation. It's about whether the people you love most will be part of any future you experience.

The importance of family preservation becomes visceral when you imagine revival scenarios. You wake up decades or centuries later. Medical technology has advanced. Revival worked. But everyone you loved is permanently gone. Your partner, children, parents, siblings, all chose conventional death. You're continuing alone.

This prospect transforms preservation from exciting possibility into bittersweet half-measure. Yes, you get more life. But you get it without the people who made life meaningful. The relationships that defined your existence have ended permanently while you continue.

Contrast this with family preservation together. You wake up and others from your life might wake up too. Your partner might be there. Your children might be revived around the same time. You face the strange future together, maintaining the bonds that mattered most.

This isn't just about you avoiding loneliness. It's about recognizing that your life's value comes largely from relationships. Preserving yourself while everyone you love disappears permanently saves your biology but loses much of what makes that biology worth preserving.

Think about it from their perspective too. If you preserve and they don't, they're making choice that affects you profoundly. They're deciding that whatever future continuation you might experience happens without them. Is that really what they want? Do they want you to potentially wake up alone?

Most people who love you would prefer to be part of your future if possible. They might not have considered preservation before, but when framed as "do you want to be there for your partner/children/parents in possible future scenarios," the answer often shifts.

This creates gentle case for discussing preservation with family. Not pressuring, not demanding, but honestly sharing: "I'm arranging preservation. I'd really like you to consider it too, because the futures where I might continue feel incomplete without you there."

Children add another dimension. Parents choosing preservation while children don't means potentially waking up in future where your children lived and died without you. You miss their entire adult lives, their accomplishments, their struggles. They face mortality without you despite you having arranged continuation possibility.

If children preserve too, you maintain the parent-child relationship across potentially radical timescales. They have you as resource and support even in distant futures. You get to see who they become, what they accomplish, how they navigate challenges. The relationship continues rather than ending arbitrarily when biology currently fails.

Partners face similar considerations. Marriage vows talk about "until death do us part," but what if death becomes negotiable? If you preserve and your partner doesn't, you're accepting permanent separation when continuation together might be possible. You're planning for futures where the most important relationship in your life has definitively ended.

Some couples find this clarifies their commitment. "I want to face uncertain futures with you, whatever they look like. Let's both preserve so we have chance of continuing together." The preservation decision becomes expression of relationship commitment that extends beyond traditional timescales.

Of course, family preservation costs more than individual preservation. Two partners doubling the monthly fees, plus children if you want them covered, creates larger financial commitment. But consider what you'd spend to have more time with family in any other context. Vacations, quality time activities, experiences together all represent investments in shared life. Preservation is ultimately the same investment extended further into possible futures.

The life insurance structure helps here. Each family member needs coverage, but premiums for children are typically very low. Young adults pay modest rates. For many families, covering everyone costs less than typical car payments. It's significant but manageable expense for most middle-class households.

There's something profound about family preservation planning. You're explicitly acknowledging how much you value these relationships. You're saying: this bond matters enough to me that I want to preserve possibility of its continuation even into radically uncertain futures. That's a powerful statement of commitment.

It also creates shared perspective on mortality and future. Families that discuss preservation together confront questions most families avoid: What makes life worth continuing? How do we value relationships? What futures do we hope for? These conversations strengthen bonds even apart from preservation itself.

The practical aspects matter too. If you're preserved but family isn't, who handles your preservation arrangements? Who ensures the organization maintains standards? Who makes decisions if issues arise? Having family members who are also preserved creates aligned incentives and mutual support.

But here's the thing: you can't force family to preserve. It has to be their choice just like it's your choice. Pressure and guilt create resentment, not genuine commitment. The best approach is honest sharing about why you're doing it and why you hope they will too, then respecting their autonomy.

Some family members will be immediately on board. Others need time to process. Some might never agree. All of that is okay. You can preserve yourself regardless of their choices. But trying to bring them along, explaining your reasoning, offering to cover costs if finances are the barrier, expressing how much their potential future presence means to you—all of this is worth doing.

Even if they don't preserve now, your choice might influence them later. Seeing you arrange preservation seriously might plant seeds that grow over time. When they face their own mortality more directly, they might remember that you created an option and decide to take it themselves.

The importance of family preservation ultimately comes down to recognizing that existence has value primarily through relationships. Preserving yourself in isolation saves one life. Preserving family together saves what makes that life meaningful. If preservation works, you want to wake up in futures where the people you love most are there too. That possibility is worth pursuing together.