knb comments on Normal Cryonics - Less Wrong

58 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 19 January 2010 07:08PM

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Comment author: knb 20 January 2010 05:10:51AM *  6 points [-]
  1. Only a much wealthier, more technologically advanced society would unfreeze corpses. Less technologically advanced societies couldn't do it, and poorer societies wouldn't bother.

  2. Over time, wealth eventually causes the cultural changes we call "moral progress".

  3. Almost all bad scenarios lead to cryopreserved people never being revived. They either become "gray goo", are eaten by roving bands of cannibals, are converted into paperclips, etc.

So anyway, I think in most scenarios reanimation will be better than death.

Comment author: Theist 20 January 2010 11:18:35PM 3 points [-]

Over time, wealth eventually causes the cultural changes we call "moral progress".

This seems a non-sequitur to me. There are a number of examples where wealth and moral progress are found together, but there are also examples where they are not. China and oil-rich Arab states come to mind.

Comment author: knb 21 January 2010 04:25:16AM *  3 points [-]

Culture changes slowly, but economic growth can happen quickly. China is still quite poor, first of all, but it still seems that significant moral progress has occurred in China, and in only 30 years or so.

The wealthier Arab states are still pretty regressive, but we must consider how bad they used to be. For instance, as recently as the 1950s, 20% of the population of Saudi Arabia were slaves.