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MugaSofer comments on A Much Better Life? - Less Wrong
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This sounds a lot like people who strongly urge others to take on a life-changing decision (joining a cult of some kind, having children, whatever) by saying that once you go for it, you will never ever want to go back to the way things were before you took the plunge.
This may be true to whatever extent, and in the story that extent is absolute, but it doesn't make for a very good sales pitch.
Can we get anything out of this analogy? If "once you join the cult, you'll never want to go back to your pre-cult life" is unnapealing because there is something fundamentally wrong with cults, can we look for a similar bug in wireheading, perfect world simulations, and so on?
Well, a major bug in cults is that they take all your money and you spend the rest of your life working to further the cult's interests. So perhaps the opportunity cost?
OTOH, it could be that something essential is missing - a cult is based on lies, an experience machine is full of zombies.