Have you read much about cryonics? If so, what are your thoughts?
AngryParsley
Karma: 1,028
That tactic combines commitment and consistency with social proof. After 5 people have told the group what honorable and high-status things they’re going to do, you’d have a hard time saying, “Well I didn’t learn anything useful tonight, but it was fun to catch up with some of you guys.” even if it were true.
Like other commenters, I recommend melatonin and keeping lights low before bedtime. Blue light seems to reduce the amount of melatonin in the brain, so dimmed incandescent lights are better than fluorescents or LEDs. Programs like F.lux or Redshift can change the color temperature of your screen at night.
More than anything else, vigorous exercise has helped keep me on a 24-hour cycle. Days when I don’t run are days when I have trouble getting to sleep. I don’t think this works for everyone though. Keeping a regular exercise routine is probably harder than keeping a standard sleep schedule.
I had a similar set-up for a while and it was quite useful. I used some X10 modules and cron jobs to turn on lamps in the morning. The automated lamps became superfluous after I moved to a place with east-facing windows. It’s not easy to shut off the morning sun.
Barring a bedroom with east-facing windows, I’d say the outlet timer is the best option. Home automation stuff is harder to set up and more expensive.
Until the third morning, when Wim finally declared, “Everything’s a trick, if’n you can see behind it, just like with them witches in the hills. Everything’s got a–reason. I think there ain’t no such thing as magic!”
Jagit fixed him with a long mild look, and the specter of the night in the Grandfather Grove seemed to flicker in the dark eyes. “You think not, eh?”
Wim looked down nervously.
“There’s magic, all right, Wim; all around you here. Only now you’re seeing it with a magician’s eyes. Because there’s a reason behind everything that happens; you may not know what it is, but it’s there. And knowing that doesn’t make the thing less magic, or strange, or terrible—it just makes it easier to deal with. That’s something to keep in mind, wherever you are … . Also keep in mind that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing.”
Wim nodded, chastened, felt his ears grow red as the peddler muttered, “So’s a little ignorance…”
-- The Peddler’s Apprentice by Joan and Vernor Vinge
I think you’re right, but there’s a possible selection effect. The ones who survived but didn’t regret jumping could have successfully committed suicide later. Then they wouldn’t be around for any interviews. Some quick searching doesn’t give me any useful stats about the likelihood of survivors re-attempting.
this seems to be of the common subgenre of scif where any new technology must have terrible costs, and when there aren’t any plausible costs, the power of plot will provide them.
Yep. Something tells me this will be similar to caveman science fiction.
I agree that the state of one’s body changes cognition quite a bit. Still, if someone becomes a quadriplegic or acquires locked-in syndrome, we don’t consider them to be dead or a different person. And compared to extracting a mind from a cryopreserved brain, rebuilding a (simulated or real) body from memories and DNA isn’t that hard.
For most of the time I spent reading this quote, I thought the men were celebrities or demagogues and the giants were the populace.
There are bitter nail polishes to help people stop thumb-sucking or nail-biting. Have you tried that?
Bruce Schneier seems pretty rational. I was recently reminded of this fact when he mentioned how his position on software monocultures has changed.
It’s refreshing when an expert says, “Whoops! I was wrong and here’s why.”
I think http://www.cartalk.com/ would be a better link.
This is offtopic but I recognized your name and I just wanted to remind you that you are awesome. In addition to your research, you do a great job of accurately portraying cryonics to laymen. This presentation has helped convince at least two people to sign up for cryonics.
One might worry about the pet getting revived without the owner. I think pets have a better chance of revival than humans. Pets can be euthanized and cryopreserved. Humans have to wait around until they die “naturally.” Pets are smaller than humans, so they can be perfused and cooled faster. Pet brains are simpler than human brains, so it’s probably easier to extrapolate behavior from incomplete data (damaged brain).
Even for pets, I think post-revival existence would be better than death. I don’t have any pets and I wouldn’t devote resources to cryopreserving them if I did, but I can understand why someone would do it.
People don’t pick their gender based on argument and evidence.
Even if I only cared about economics, their beliefs affect how well I can do my job. I doubt I could sit across from an antivaxxer and get anything useful done. How picky one can be is determined by the number and quality of candidates.
My quality of life is also affected by the people I interact with daily. To use a silly example: I hate brussel sprouts. If someone said, “Oh I love brussel sprouts! I cook them every day at lunch!” that would affect how much time I’d want to spend around that person.
I tried to make the country club a version of the Catholic church that was nicer in every way. Instead of claiming you will be tortured forever if you do those things (and don’t go to confession), the country club asks you to leave.
Are you really willing to bite that bullet? What if the person was a member of an anti-vaccination group? Or a racist group?
My answer to your question is, “It depends.” because really it does depend on a lot of other things, such as how many other comparable candidates there are. Given typical circumstances, I draw the line just before enthusiastic religious belief, like in my hypothetical. If it was an easy decision, I wouldn’t be posting about it.
That’s the point I was trying to make. I’m sorry if it came across as endorsing the tactic. “Commitment and consistency” and “social proof” are two of the six “weapons of influence” from Cialdini’s Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion.