Alex, I see your point, and I can certainly look at cryonics this way… And I’m well on my way to a fully responsible reasoned-out decision on cryonics. I know I am, because it’s now feeling like one of these no-fun grown-up things I’m going to have to suck up and do, like taxes and dental appointments. I appreciate your sharing this “bah, no big deal, just get it done” attitude which is a helpful model at this point. I tend to be the agonizing type.
But I think I’m also making a point about communicating the singularity to society, as opposed to individuals. This knee-jerk reaction to topics like cryonics and AI, and to promises such as the virtual end of suffering… might it be a sort of self-preservation instinct of society (not individuals)? So, defining “society” as the system of beliefs and tools and skills we’ve evolved to deal with fore-knowledge of death, I guess I’m asking if society is alive, inasmuch as it has inherited some basic self-preservation mechanisms, by virtue of the sunk-cost fallacy suffered by the individuals that comprise it?
So you may have a perfectly no-brainer argument that can convince any individual, and still move nobody. The same way you can’t make me slap my forehead by convincing each individual cell in my hand to do it. They’ll need the brain to coordinate, and you can’t make that happen by talking to each individual neuron either. Society is the body that needs to move, culture its mind?
Generally, reasoning by analogy is not very well regarded here. But, nonetheless let me try to communicate.
Society doesn’t have a body other than people. Where societal norms have the greatest sway is when Individuals follow customs and traditions without thinking about them or get reactions that they cannot explain rationally.
Unfortunately, there is no way other than talking to and convincing individuals who are willing to look beyond those reactions and beyond those customs. Maybe they will slowly develop into a majority. Maybe all that they need is a critical mass beyond which they can branch into their own socio-political system. (As Peter Theil pointed out in one of his controversial talks)
Alex, I see your point, and I can certainly look at cryonics this way… And I’m well on my way to a fully responsible reasoned-out decision on cryonics. I know I am, because it’s now feeling like one of these no-fun grown-up things I’m going to have to suck up and do, like taxes and dental appointments. I appreciate your sharing this “bah, no big deal, just get it done” attitude which is a helpful model at this point. I tend to be the agonizing type.
But I think I’m also making a point about communicating the singularity to society, as opposed to individuals. This knee-jerk reaction to topics like cryonics and AI, and to promises such as the virtual end of suffering… might it be a sort of self-preservation instinct of society (not individuals)? So, defining “society” as the system of beliefs and tools and skills we’ve evolved to deal with fore-knowledge of death, I guess I’m asking if society is alive, inasmuch as it has inherited some basic self-preservation mechanisms, by virtue of the sunk-cost fallacy suffered by the individuals that comprise it?
So you may have a perfectly no-brainer argument that can convince any individual, and still move nobody. The same way you can’t make me slap my forehead by convincing each individual cell in my hand to do it. They’ll need the brain to coordinate, and you can’t make that happen by talking to each individual neuron either. Society is the body that needs to move, culture its mind?
Generally, reasoning by analogy is not very well regarded here. But, nonetheless let me try to communicate.
Society doesn’t have a body other than people. Where societal norms have the greatest sway is when Individuals follow customs and traditions without thinking about them or get reactions that they cannot explain rationally.
Unfortunately, there is no way other than talking to and convincing individuals who are willing to look beyond those reactions and beyond those customs. Maybe they will slowly develop into a majority. Maybe all that they need is a critical mass beyond which they can branch into their own socio-political system. (As Peter Theil pointed out in one of his controversial talks)