When applying your objections to my own perspective, I find that I see my actions that aren’t focused on reducing involuntary death (eating candies, playing video games, sleeping) as necessary for the actual pursuit of my larger goals.
I am a vastly inefficient engine. My productive power goes to the future, but much of it bleeds away—not as heat and friction, but as sleep and candy-eating. Those things are necessary for the engine to run, but they aren’t necessary evils. I need to do them to be happy, because a happy engine is an efficient one.
I recognized two other important points. One is that I must work daily to improve the efficiency of my engine. I stopped playing video games, so I could work harder. I stopped partying so often so I could be more productive. Etcetera.
The other point is that it’s crucial to remember why I’m doing this stuff in the first place. I only care about reducing existential risk and signing up for cryonics and destroying death because of the other things I care about: eating candies, sleeping, making friends, traveling, learning, improving, laughing, dancing, drinking, moving, seeing, breathing, thinking… I am trying to satisfy my actual preferences.
The light at the end of the tunnel is utopia. If I want to get there, I need to make sure the engine runs clean. I don’t think working on global warming will do it—but if I did, that’s where I’d be putting in my time.
When applying your objections to my own perspective, I find that I see my actions that aren’t focused on reducing involuntary death (eating candies, playing video games, sleeping) as necessary for the actual pursuit of my larger goals.
I am a vastly inefficient engine. My productive power goes to the future, but much of it bleeds away—not as heat and friction, but as sleep and candy-eating. Those things are necessary for the engine to run, but they aren’t necessary evils. I need to do them to be happy, because a happy engine is an efficient one.
I recognized two other important points. One is that I must work daily to improve the efficiency of my engine. I stopped playing video games, so I could work harder. I stopped partying so often so I could be more productive. Etcetera.
The other point is that it’s crucial to remember why I’m doing this stuff in the first place. I only care about reducing existential risk and signing up for cryonics and destroying death because of the other things I care about: eating candies, sleeping, making friends, traveling, learning, improving, laughing, dancing, drinking, moving, seeing, breathing, thinking… I am trying to satisfy my actual preferences.
The light at the end of the tunnel is utopia. If I want to get there, I need to make sure the engine runs clean. I don’t think working on global warming will do it—but if I did, that’s where I’d be putting in my time.