I think it’s not possible, but even if it were, I think I would not bother. Introspecting now, I’m not sure I can explain why. But it seems that natural death seems like a good point to say “enough is enough.” In other words, letting what’s been given be enough.
-Longer life has never been given; it has always been taken. There is no giver.
-”Enough is enough” is sour grapes—“I probably don’t have access to living forever, so it’s easier to change my values to be happy with that than to want yet not attain it.” But if it were a guarantee, and everyone else was doing it (as they would if it were a guarantee), then this position would be the equivalent to advocating suicide at some ridiculously young age in the current era.
It takes the mostly correct idea “life is good, death is bad” to such an extreme that it does violence to other valuable parts of our humanity (sorry, but I can’t be more specific).
I assert that the more extremely the idea “life is good, death is bad” is held, the more benefit other valuable parts of our humanity are rendered. I can’t be more specific.
I’m not quite convinced of the merits of investing in cryonics at this point, though “enough is enough” does not strike me as a particularly salient argument either.
In terms of weighing the utility to me based on some nebulous personal function:
Cryonics has an opportunity cost in terms of direct expenses and additionally in terms of my social interactions with other people. Both of these seem to be nominal, though the perhaps $300 or so dollars a year could add quite a bit of utility to my current life as I live on about $7K per year. Though I very well may die today, not having spent any of that potential money.
On the other side being revived in the distant future could be quite high in terms of personal utility. Though, I have no reason at all to believe the situation will be agreeable; in other words, permanent death very well could be for the best. I would imagine reviving a person from vitrification would be a costly venture even barring future miracle technology. Revival is not currently possible and there is no reason to think the current processes are being done in any sort of optimal way. At the very least, the cost of creating the tech to revive people will be expensive. Future tech or not, I see it likely that revival will come at some cost with perhaps no choice given to me in the matter. I see this as a likely possibility (at least more likely than a benevolent AI utopia) as science has never fundamentally made people better (more rational?)- so far at least; it certainly ticks forward and may improve the lives of some people, but they are all still fundamentally motivated by the same vestigial desires and all have the same deficiencies as before. Given our nature, I see the most likely outcome, past the novelty of the first couple of successful attempts, being some quid pro quo.
Succinctly, my projection of the most likely state of the world in which I would be revived is the same as today though with more advanced technology. Very often the ones to pioneer new technology aren’t scrupulous. I very well may choose a non existence to one of abject suffering or one where my mind may be used to hurt others, etc. This would be an optimization for the worst case scenario.
-Longer life has never been given; it has always been taken. There is no giver.
-”Enough is enough” is sour grapes—“I probably don’t have access to living forever, so it’s easier to change my values to be happy with that than to want yet not attain it.” But if it were a guarantee, and everyone else was doing it (as they would if it were a guarantee), then this position would be the equivalent to advocating suicide at some ridiculously young age in the current era.
I assert that the more extremely the idea “life is good, death is bad” is held, the more benefit other valuable parts of our humanity are rendered. I can’t be more specific.
I’m not quite convinced of the merits of investing in cryonics at this point, though “enough is enough” does not strike me as a particularly salient argument either.
In terms of weighing the utility to me based on some nebulous personal function: Cryonics has an opportunity cost in terms of direct expenses and additionally in terms of my social interactions with other people. Both of these seem to be nominal, though the perhaps $300 or so dollars a year could add quite a bit of utility to my current life as I live on about $7K per year. Though I very well may die today, not having spent any of that potential money.
On the other side being revived in the distant future could be quite high in terms of personal utility. Though, I have no reason at all to believe the situation will be agreeable; in other words, permanent death very well could be for the best. I would imagine reviving a person from vitrification would be a costly venture even barring future miracle technology. Revival is not currently possible and there is no reason to think the current processes are being done in any sort of optimal way. At the very least, the cost of creating the tech to revive people will be expensive. Future tech or not, I see it likely that revival will come at some cost with perhaps no choice given to me in the matter. I see this as a likely possibility (at least more likely than a benevolent AI utopia) as science has never fundamentally made people better (more rational?)- so far at least; it certainly ticks forward and may improve the lives of some people, but they are all still fundamentally motivated by the same vestigial desires and all have the same deficiencies as before. Given our nature, I see the most likely outcome, past the novelty of the first couple of successful attempts, being some quid pro quo.
Succinctly, my projection of the most likely state of the world in which I would be revived is the same as today though with more advanced technology. Very often the ones to pioneer new technology aren’t scrupulous. I very well may choose a non existence to one of abject suffering or one where my mind may be used to hurt others, etc. This would be an optimization for the worst case scenario.