The situation here is analogous to an anti-cryonics institution selling cryonics services while not actually setting aside the necessary resources to do so, on the grounds that “they’re wrong, so it won’t make a noticeable difference either way”.
Yeah, that should be illegal. Why shouldn’t it?
If the person running the Rapture pet insurance does not actually have the resources to take care of the pets in the event of Rapture, or would not honor their commitment if it took place, then yes, that would be the appropriate analogy, and I would agree that it’s dishonest. But if a person who doesn’t believe cryonics will work still puts in their best effort to get it to work anyway, to outcompete the other institutions offering cryonics services, then do their beliefs on the issue really matter?
I did address it; if you want to criticize my discussion of it, fine—that’s something we can talk about. But if you want to persist in this demand for a computable procedure for resolving a moral dilemma (by distinguishing beliefs from delusion), that is a blatantly lopsided shifting of the burden here.
Can you point out where you did so? I haven’t noticed anything to this effect.
I would personally draw the line at providing services that people would, on average, wish in hindsight that they had not spent their money on, or that only people who are not qualified to take care of themselves would want. If large numbers of people signed up for the service on a particular day, and when it didn’t occur on that day, discarded their belief in an imminent rapture, then the insurance policy would meet the first criterion, but most people who believe in an imminent rapture and pass an expected date simply move on to another expected date, or revise their estimate to “soon,” which would justify continued investment in the policy.
If the person running the Rapture pet insurance does not actually have the resources to take care of the pets in the event of Rapture, or would not honor their commitment if it took place, then yes, that would be the appropriate analogy, and I would agree that it’s dishonest. But if a person who doesn’t believe cryonics will work still puts in their best effort to get it to work anyway, to outcompete the other institutions offering cryonics services, then do their beliefs on the issue really matter?
Can you point out where you did so? I haven’t noticed anything to this effect.
I would personally draw the line at providing services that people would, on average, wish in hindsight that they had not spent their money on, or that only people who are not qualified to take care of themselves would want. If large numbers of people signed up for the service on a particular day, and when it didn’t occur on that day, discarded their belief in an imminent rapture, then the insurance policy would meet the first criterion, but most people who believe in an imminent rapture and pass an expected date simply move on to another expected date, or revise their estimate to “soon,” which would justify continued investment in the policy.