One advantage of life extension is that it might prompt people to think in a more long-term-focused way, which might be nice for solving coordination problems and x-risks.
Some people think that they are able to think more clearly about the future as a result of being signed up for cryonics, because they aren’t as scared of death and don’t need to rationalize that eg the Singularity will happen in their lifetimes.
In cryonicists’ defense, I’ve never heard them say that they buy cryonics from their EA budget; it seems to be a personal spending thing.
I’m totally ok with people agreeing to spend money on it, but not from their EA budget, and acknowledging that.
Agree it definitely has some long term advantages, curious how we can estimate those.
I find the argument “I’m so afraid of dying and believe in cyronics so much that signing up for cryonics would end many of my worries and let me be far more productive” kind of humorous, though imagine that it could be true for a very small set of people.
I find the argument “I’m so afraid of dying and believe in cyronics so much that signing up for cryonics would end many of my worries and let me be far more productive” kind of humorous
Hey Ozzie, could you explain why you find it humorous? Full disclosure: I’m in the cryo camp and I’d like to learn how to explain my beliefs to others in future.
(Note: I found this old thread after Eliezer recently shared this Wait But Why post on his Facebook:
Why Cryonics Makes Sense)
“I’m so afraid of dying and believe in cyronics so much that signing up for cryonics would end many of my worries and let me be far more productive”
I don’t find this argument humorous, but I do see it as perhaps the most plausible argument defending cryonics from an EA perspective.
That said, I don’t think the argument succeeds for myself or (I would presume) a large majority of other people.
(It seems to me that the exceptions that may exist would tend to be the people who are very high producers (such that even a very small percentage increase in their good-production would outweigh the cost of their signing up for cryonics) rather than people who are exceptionally afraid of death and love the idea of possibly waking up in the distant future and living longer so much to the point that not signing up for cryonics would be debilitating to them and a sufficiently large hindrance on their productivity (e.g. due to feeling depressed and being unable to concentrate on EA work, knowing that this cryonics option exists that would give them hope) to outweigh the cost of signing up for cryonics.)
So I don’t see cryonics as being very defensible from an EA perspective.
One advantage of life extension is that it might prompt people to think in a more long-term-focused way, which might be nice for solving coordination problems and x-risks.
Some people think that they are able to think more clearly about the future as a result of being signed up for cryonics, because they aren’t as scared of death and don’t need to rationalize that eg the Singularity will happen in their lifetimes.
In cryonicists’ defense, I’ve never heard them say that they buy cryonics from their EA budget; it seems to be a personal spending thing.
I’m totally ok with people agreeing to spend money on it, but not from their EA budget, and acknowledging that.
Agree it definitely has some long term advantages, curious how we can estimate those.
I find the argument “I’m so afraid of dying and believe in cyronics so much that signing up for cryonics would end many of my worries and let me be far more productive” kind of humorous, though imagine that it could be true for a very small set of people.
Hey Ozzie, could you explain why you find it humorous? Full disclosure: I’m in the cryo camp and I’d like to learn how to explain my beliefs to others in future.
(Note: I found this old thread after Eliezer recently shared this Wait But Why post on his Facebook: Why Cryonics Makes Sense)
I don’t find this argument humorous, but I do see it as perhaps the most plausible argument defending cryonics from an EA perspective.
That said, I don’t think the argument succeeds for myself or (I would presume) a large majority of other people.
(It seems to me that the exceptions that may exist would tend to be the people who are very high producers (such that even a very small percentage increase in their good-production would outweigh the cost of their signing up for cryonics) rather than people who are exceptionally afraid of death and love the idea of possibly waking up in the distant future and living longer so much to the point that not signing up for cryonics would be debilitating to them and a sufficiently large hindrance on their productivity (e.g. due to feeling depressed and being unable to concentrate on EA work, knowing that this cryonics option exists that would give them hope) to outweigh the cost of signing up for cryonics.)
So I don’t see cryonics as being very defensible from an EA perspective.