I’ve given the occasional thought to what I’d do if I ever found myself in this kind of situation. And although I can’t speak to my will to go through with it at the time, I’d honestly probably choose to die. Not because of concerns about my human dignity or some kind of depression that comes with a diminished quality of life, but just because my discounted present value will probably be heavily negative, meaning that I’m tying up resources that could be better-used than keeping me alive. I can’t speak about whether this applies to your situation, not knowing how much treatment costs nor what you do in your life, but if it were me… yeah.
Usually I wouldn’t admit to thinking this way because it strikes people as being really bizarre, but I figure if any group would at least be able to understand where I’m coming from, it’d be here.
But I do seriously admire your ability to hold your head high in an extremely adversarial situation… keep it up.
(Oh, and the DPV concern is also why I’m skeptical of cryonics, but I’m open to arguments showing that it really is worthwhile.)
Sympathies, and best wishes for continuing happy and productive life. Keep us posted on how things go!
I’m also in the camp that would not choose such measures for myself, partly for the reasons Peter discusses.
However, the resource argument does not, I think, apply to cryonics. Cryonics has very strong economies of scale, the upshot of which is that if you pay $X for an attempt to save your own life that way, you’re effectively also contributing nearly $X to trying to save future patients’ lives, without having to pay anything extra.
My sympathies.
I’ve given the occasional thought to what I’d do if I ever found myself in this kind of situation. And although I can’t speak to my will to go through with it at the time, I’d honestly probably choose to die. Not because of concerns about my human dignity or some kind of depression that comes with a diminished quality of life, but just because my discounted present value will probably be heavily negative, meaning that I’m tying up resources that could be better-used than keeping me alive. I can’t speak about whether this applies to your situation, not knowing how much treatment costs nor what you do in your life, but if it were me… yeah.
Usually I wouldn’t admit to thinking this way because it strikes people as being really bizarre, but I figure if any group would at least be able to understand where I’m coming from, it’d be here.
But I do seriously admire your ability to hold your head high in an extremely adversarial situation… keep it up.
(Oh, and the DPV concern is also why I’m skeptical of cryonics, but I’m open to arguments showing that it really is worthwhile.)
Sympathies, and best wishes for continuing happy and productive life. Keep us posted on how things go!
I’m also in the camp that would not choose such measures for myself, partly for the reasons Peter discusses.
However, the resource argument does not, I think, apply to cryonics. Cryonics has very strong economies of scale, the upshot of which is that if you pay $X for an attempt to save your own life that way, you’re effectively also contributing nearly $X to trying to save future patients’ lives, without having to pay anything extra.