Otherwise, they would also include the happiness of family and friends after the frozen person is cured.
That only works if their family and friends are cryopreserved themselves, or live until it becomes possible to wake them up.
That being said, I don’t think the pain of grief is comparable to death.
Technically, by following this argument, we also should stop curing cancer, because that money could also be used for Givewell charities and animal welfare.
And that’s exactly why I’m against donating to cancer research. If I had the opportunity to funnel all that money to something useful, I would. If I had the opportunity to choose between cancer, cyronics, or the government using the money in another fairly useless manner, I don’t know which I’d pick.
And that’s exactly why I’m against donating to cancer research.
I think opposition to donating to cancer research (as opposed to donating to more cost efficient options) is obvious and accepted (here). Still, I’m selfish enough that if I had cancer I would treat it, which is what was actually being considered/compared to cryonics.
I’m sure this has come up before, but I think there are some cases in which cancer research donations make sense. Often donations geared towards the curing of specific diseases is prompted by some personal emotional connection to the disease (e.g., someone in one’s family suffered or died as a result of it), and I expect these kind of emotional donations don’t replace other would-be-efficient charity donations but instead replace general spending or saving. That said, I don’t actually know if that’s the case.
Still, I’m selfish enough that if I had cancer I would treat it, which is what was actually being considered/compared to cryonics.
I often do the selfish thing when I don’t have enough willpower to do the right thing, but it doesn’t take a whole lot of willpower to not sign up for cryonics. Based on the fact that someone coined the word “cryocrastination”, I’m betting it takes quite a bit of willpower to sign up.
That only works if their family and friends are cryopreserved themselves, or live until it becomes possible to wake them up.
That being said, I don’t think the pain of grief is comparable to death.
And that’s exactly why I’m against donating to cancer research. If I had the opportunity to funnel all that money to something useful, I would. If I had the opportunity to choose between cancer, cyronics, or the government using the money in another fairly useless manner, I don’t know which I’d pick.
I think opposition to donating to cancer research (as opposed to donating to more cost efficient options) is obvious and accepted (here). Still, I’m selfish enough that if I had cancer I would treat it, which is what was actually being considered/compared to cryonics.
I’m sure this has come up before, but I think there are some cases in which cancer research donations make sense. Often donations geared towards the curing of specific diseases is prompted by some personal emotional connection to the disease (e.g., someone in one’s family suffered or died as a result of it), and I expect these kind of emotional donations don’t replace other would-be-efficient charity donations but instead replace general spending or saving. That said, I don’t actually know if that’s the case.
I often do the selfish thing when I don’t have enough willpower to do the right thing, but it doesn’t take a whole lot of willpower to not sign up for cryonics. Based on the fact that someone coined the word “cryocrastination”, I’m betting it takes quite a bit of willpower to sign up.