You’ve misread my wording. I’m saying that the burden of proof should stay on Alcor because they are the ones trying to make money. They should do more than just show something “might work” if they are trying to charge you for services which they claim “will work”.
I’m saying that the burden of proof should stay on Alcor because they are the ones trying to make money.
Epistemological conclusions shouldn’t be based on fear of being scammed. Alcor’s motivation should be taken into account Bayesianically, but argument screens off motivation (limited of course by dependence on unchecked facts).
they are trying to charge you for services which they claim “will work”.
From the Alcor FAQ: “Is cryonics guaranteed to work? No.”
Whoever said they were afraid of being scammed? You’re mistaking honest skepticism for paranoia.
Alcor doesn’t claim that cryonics will work? OK. But they do argue “it might work or at least have enough probability to be worth the investment”, and so on. Then my argument remains the same. This desire for investment puts the onus of proof on them.
So no matter what Alcor or CI write or what evidence they produce, the burden of proof is still on them and their critics need not say or write a word to justify being dismissive of what they do?
If the cryonics organizations (or the scientific community) found strong evidence, then the critics would certainly have to justify themselves strongly. The current state of the evidence I would not call strong—but others on LW seem to disagree. After discussing this semi-extensively on prior Less Wrong threads, the confusion seems to arise due to a blog philosophy of evidence as a “Bayesian entity” (I quote this because I haven’t studied Bayesian statistics so I’m not quite sure what it’s all about) whereas the general scientific community views evidence most strongly as a physical entity (i.e., established through direct tests, polls, experiments, theoretical results, and so on) -- I tend to take the latter viewpoint more seriously.
You’ve misread my wording. I’m saying that the burden of proof should stay on Alcor because they are the ones trying to make money. They should do more than just show something “might work” if they are trying to charge you for services which they claim “will work”.
Epistemological conclusions shouldn’t be based on fear of being scammed. Alcor’s motivation should be taken into account Bayesianically, but argument screens off motivation (limited of course by dependence on unchecked facts).
From the Alcor FAQ: “Is cryonics guaranteed to work? No.”
Whoever said they were afraid of being scammed? You’re mistaking honest skepticism for paranoia.
Alcor doesn’t claim that cryonics will work? OK. But they do argue “it might work or at least have enough probability to be worth the investment”, and so on. Then my argument remains the same. This desire for investment puts the onus of proof on them.
Alcor and CI are non-profits.
So no matter what Alcor or CI write or what evidence they produce, the burden of proof is still on them and their critics need not say or write a word to justify being dismissive of what they do?
If the cryonics organizations (or the scientific community) found strong evidence, then the critics would certainly have to justify themselves strongly. The current state of the evidence I would not call strong—but others on LW seem to disagree. After discussing this semi-extensively on prior Less Wrong threads, the confusion seems to arise due to a blog philosophy of evidence as a “Bayesian entity” (I quote this because I haven’t studied Bayesian statistics so I’m not quite sure what it’s all about) whereas the general scientific community views evidence most strongly as a physical entity (i.e., established through direct tests, polls, experiments, theoretical results, and so on) -- I tend to take the latter viewpoint more seriously.
Then you should learn. Start here, or if you already have some experience applying Bayes’ Theorem, start here.
They make no such claim, so they do not bear that burden.