It sounds like this is a question that you really, truly need to know the correct answer to because you have something to protect. I can sympathise here, because my own journey into rationalism really started when I realised that something extremely bad might happen—something so important that I needed to be sane about it.
When faced with a question that you need the correct answer to, there’s some agreement on LW that the right attitude is one of curiosity. Having too much fear can get in the way of clear thinking—and you’ll need a lot of clear thinking here because even established philosophers struggle with these kinds of topic. You just need to get better at it than they are. But my advice is that the more immediate project is to try and move yourself from a position of terror to one of curiosity.
(Feeling like you’re doing the most sensible thing might also help with the terror, I’m not sure).
I don’t know whether it’s best to try and ramp up curiosity on the quantum immortality topic or whether it would be better to approach related topics first. UDT, the anthropic principle and possibly infinite ethics are all very relevant (and active) areas of research.
Anyway, you’re welcome to PM me, either about any of the topics I’ve mentioned (I’ve thought about them a bunch but I shouldn’t be considered an expert), or on the meta-problem of how to get less terrified and more curious.
It sounds like this is a question that you really, truly need to know the correct answer to because you have something to protect. I can sympathise here, because my own journey into rationalism really started when I realised that something extremely bad might happen—something so important that I needed to be sane about it.
When faced with a question that you need the correct answer to, there’s some agreement on LW that the right attitude is one of curiosity. Having too much fear can get in the way of clear thinking—and you’ll need a lot of clear thinking here because even established philosophers struggle with these kinds of topic. You just need to get better at it than they are. But my advice is that the more immediate project is to try and move yourself from a position of terror to one of curiosity.
(Feeling like you’re doing the most sensible thing might also help with the terror, I’m not sure).
I don’t know whether it’s best to try and ramp up curiosity on the quantum immortality topic or whether it would be better to approach related topics first. UDT, the anthropic principle and possibly infinite ethics are all very relevant (and active) areas of research.
Anyway, you’re welcome to PM me, either about any of the topics I’ve mentioned (I’ve thought about them a bunch but I shouldn’t be considered an expert), or on the meta-problem of how to get less terrified and more curious.