Cryonics actually works (probably), and is cheap (definitely). SENS, on the other hand, is speculative, and needs $ hundreds of millions at the minimum to get to work.
I’d say that the marginal utility of money for the first $100M would be better spent almost entirely on marketing cryo.
After that, then maybe some exploratory work on SENS… though it would be an uphill battle against both a fiendishly hard scientific problem, AND public opinion. Cryo, on the other hand, you just have to sell it. (And that might be relatively easy, i.e. 1 million signups for $100M in promotional work)
On the other hand though, I think that if SENS actually worked, it would make a lot more of a difference to the world than if we successfully marketed cryo to a million nerdy-types.
So actually, maybe SENS is the better investment, if you have big money and you’re an altruist.
With smaller money and more egoism/desire to save those who are more like you, cryo-marketing.
SENS, on the other hand, is speculative, and needs $ hundreds of millions at the minimum to get to work.
If you’re talking about the cost of R&D, I don’t think so. A lot of the work of SENS is just to find the important developments amid the mass of biological research happening every day in thousands of universities and companies. Certainly, once you grasp that big picture, you can spot gaps and call for them to be filled with specific new research, and that costs money. But I see SENS as mostly an exercise in providing a coherent strategic vision for rejuvenation research (and that’s a vision that needs constant updating).
But what do you do once you find the important developments? You have to either fund it yourself, or somehow convince a skeptical and chaotic community to do lots more of it! And that costs money. Just because you know the answer… … doesn’t mean that you can just tell it to people and expect them to obey.
I would really like an answer to this question because it is the predicament that I am quite sure I find myself in. I can’t get people to pay enough attention to even tell me where I am wrong. :(
I strongly agree.
How would the effectiveness of cryonics as charity compare to supporting SENS?
Cryonics actually works (probably), and is cheap (definitely). SENS, on the other hand, is speculative, and needs $ hundreds of millions at the minimum to get to work.
I’d say that the marginal utility of money for the first $100M would be better spent almost entirely on marketing cryo.
After that, then maybe some exploratory work on SENS… though it would be an uphill battle against both a fiendishly hard scientific problem, AND public opinion. Cryo, on the other hand, you just have to sell it. (And that might be relatively easy, i.e. 1 million signups for $100M in promotional work)
On the other hand though, I think that if SENS actually worked, it would make a lot more of a difference to the world than if we successfully marketed cryo to a million nerdy-types.
So actually, maybe SENS is the better investment, if you have big money and you’re an altruist.
With smaller money and more egoism/desire to save those who are more like you, cryo-marketing.
If you’re talking about the cost of R&D, I don’t think so. A lot of the work of SENS is just to find the important developments amid the mass of biological research happening every day in thousands of universities and companies. Certainly, once you grasp that big picture, you can spot gaps and call for them to be filled with specific new research, and that costs money. But I see SENS as mostly an exercise in providing a coherent strategic vision for rejuvenation research (and that’s a vision that needs constant updating).
But what do you do once you find the important developments? You have to either fund it yourself, or somehow convince a skeptical and chaotic community to do lots more of it! And that costs money. Just because you know the answer… … doesn’t mean that you can just tell it to people and expect them to obey.
I would really like an answer to this question because it is the predicament that I am quite sure I find myself in. I can’t get people to pay enough attention to even tell me where I am wrong. :(