Nick: Personally, I forgo cryonics in favor of luxury goods all the time rather unapologetically. I don’t see how this could constitute conspicuous self-sacrifice signaling. Spending on things like cryonics or SIAI is generally going to be driven by idealized semi-aspirational self-models which are not hyperbolic discounters, not heavy discounters, and extend their self-concept fairly broadly rather than confining it according to biological imperatives. For such a self-model, there’s not much self to sacrifice. For the self that makes most of my small decisions there is a self to sacrifice, and that self doesn’t get sacrificed in favor of some future person who supposedly is “me” just because there is a good argument backing that supposition.
Nick: Personally, I forgo cryonics in favor of luxury goods all the time rather unapologetically. I don’t see how this could constitute conspicuous self-sacrifice signaling. Spending on things like cryonics or SIAI is generally going to be driven by idealized semi-aspirational self-models which are not hyperbolic discounters, not heavy discounters, and extend their self-concept fairly broadly rather than confining it according to biological imperatives. For such a self-model, there’s not much self to sacrifice. For the self that makes most of my small decisions there is a self to sacrifice, and that self doesn’t get sacrificed in favor of some future person who supposedly is “me” just because there is a good argument backing that supposition.