# Kurzweil puts staying alive ahead of cryonics Markdown copy of https://realalpha.app/s/kurzweil-puts-staying-alive-ahead-of-cryonics/ on Real Alpha, the best minutes from long interviews with the people building AI. Cite and link the page, not this copy. - Speaker: [Ray Kurzweil](https://realalpha.app/people/ray-kurzweil/) · Ray Kurzweil is an inventor and futurist. - Host: [Peter Diamandis](https://realalpha.app/people/peter-diamandis/) · Founder & executive chairman, XPRIZE Foundation · Co-founded Singularity University and founded Zero-G; co-wrote the books Abundance and Bold. - Host: [Salim Ismail](https://realalpha.app/people/salim-ismail/) · Founder, OpenExO · Co-wrote Exponential Organizations; was Singularity University's founding executive director; sold Ångströ to Google. - Host: [Dave Blundin](https://realalpha.app/people/dave-blundin/) · Founder & GP, Link Ventures · Has co-founded 23 companies; founding CEO of Vestmark and chairman of insurance marketplace EverQuote. - Host: [Alexander Wissner-Gross](https://realalpha.app/people/alexander-wissner-gross/) · Computer Scientist & Founder, Reified · Has backed and advised 40+ tech companies, directly and through 021T Capital and Reified; writes The Innermost Loop. - Show: Moonshots - Episode: [The Singularity Countdown: AGI by 2029, Humans Merge with AI, Intelligence 1000x | Ray Kurzweil](https://realalpha.app/v/8iWSNwIRazc/), Jan 20, 2026 - Moment: 46:47 to 51:28 of the episode (5 min), playing on https://realalpha.app/s/kurzweil-puts-staying-alive-ahead-of-cryonics/; the episode from there: https://realalpha.app/v/8iWSNwIRazc/?t=2807 ## Quote > “I mean, cryonics is better than not doing cryonics because at least you have **some chance of coming back**.” > — [Ray Kurzweil](https://realalpha.app/people/ray-kurzweil/) at [48:50](https://realalpha.app/v/8iWSNwIRazc/?t=2930) · Moonshots ## Takeaways 1. He treats cryonics as a fallback, not a first choice. 2. He worries revival may not preserve the person or their happiness. 3. He advises staying alive and reasonably healthy now. ## About this segment Ray Kurzweil calls cryonics a fallback and worries that revival may not preserve the person or their happiness. His advice is to stay alive and healthy enough to reach future medical advances. From “The Singularity Countdown: AGI by 2029, Humans Merge with AI, Intelligence 1000x | Ray Kurzweil”, Jan 20, 2026. [Watch the full episode](https://realalpha.app/v/8iWSNwIRazc/) ## Transcript Transcribed by machine (Whisper) from the episode’s audio, so a word may be off here and there. [47:00](https://realalpha.app/v/8iWSNwIRazc/?t=2820) I don't think that would be me, but I hope not. Alex, you had a great question about cryonics. Yeah, no, I don't like very much the direction of what we're discussing here. I don't think, Ray, this at all aligns with the way you see the world either. I think you and I probably see the world quite similarly, rather than having hand-wringing discussions about death with dignity and going to Canada, I would argue we should be talking about cryonics as recognizing that. [47:30](https://realalpha.app/v/8iWSNwIRazc/?t=2850) that approximately 150,000 people are dying every day in our world, and not everyone, statistically, if we get to longevity escape velocity by the early 2030s, as you predict, that's many, many millions of people who are going to die between now and LEV. Why do you think more people aren't obtaining cryonics plans for themselves? And what can you say here? We have hundreds of thousands of subscribers, hundreds of thousands of viewers to encourage viewers to consider getting cryonics plans for themselves so they don't have to move to Canada to die with dignity if they're in that position? Well, my point on cryonics is that that is plan D. Plan D. I love that. Plan A, B, and C is to remain alive one way or another. And cryonics is plan D. I mean, I have enough trouble keeping track of my ideas when I'm able to give arguments [48:39](https://realalpha.app/v/8iWSNwIRazc/?t=2919) for them and keep track of them. It would be hard to imagine keeping track of them while I'm basically dead. Coming back, it's, I mean, I have concerns about them. You may come back and you may not be happy with the way you come back. I mean, cryonics is better than not doing cryonics because at least you have some chance of coming back. But there's risks with it. So I do it, very few people do it. [49:22](https://realalpha.app/v/8iWSNwIRazc/?t=2962) I mean, the number of people who die, who elect cryonics, it's very, very small. I have done it, I hope it works. You've signed up for cryonics, right? Yeah, but I hope that I won't have that opportunity. For our viewers and listeners who don't know what this is, there are companies like Alcor where you can sign up and near the moment of your death, they will effectively put antifreeze or some equivalent thereof into your bloodstream and you will be frozen with the notion that eventually technologies like nanotechnology will be able to reconstruct your... [50:00](https://realalpha.app/v/8iWSNwIRazc/?t=3000) Your full neocortex is under cryonics right now. I would say, Ray, it's unconscionable to me that I think you have the statistics. I think probably a few thousand people, order of magnitude, have cryonics plans. Why do you think it's not hundreds of millions? And again, is there anything that you would care to do? You're speaking to hundreds of thousands of people who take the future of technology very seriously to maybe persuade them, if you think this is a righteous act, that they should be perhaps considering cryonics plans for themselves. [50:38](https://realalpha.app/v/8iWSNwIRazc/?t=3038) perhaps but given that i have limited uh persuasion on people listen to me uh i would tell people that they should do everything they can to stay alive uh that's because that's the best way of being alive in the future is to stay alive right now and there's a lot you can do to remain alive and ray are you saying you not just stay alive but stay in reasonable health. Yeah, absolutely. And that the technologies will unveil themselves to you in the next five to eight years, yes? [51:16](https://realalpha.app/v/8iWSNwIRazc/?t=3076) And it's happening very quickly.