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alyssavance comments on A survey of anti-cryonics writing - Less Wrong
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You are saying, "Evolution would want organisms to value X, therefore organisms really do value X". I pointed out that this is not valid logic, and gave a case where the logic breaks down. What is your reply? From your comment "For "lousy" read "excellent"" it seems to be faith in the ability of evolution, to which my reply is http://lesswrong.com/lw/ks/the_wonder_of_evolution/.
What I originally said was:
"most organisms value having kids over living for a long time."
I said MOST organisms - and referred to a specific example: kids vs lifespan.
Your representation of my position drops the qualifying word "most" and generalises it. That is not a legitimate operation in an argument.
Also, perhaps best to stop using quotation marks when attributing distorted versions of my views to me.
You appeared to be generalizing in this case from 'most organisms' to 'most people' which doesn't seem valid to me.
I do also think is is generally true that most people value having kids over living for a long time - though I wasn't making a logical generalisation from "most organisms" to "most people" in the absence of other observations.
Biology has reproduction as an ultimate goal, and longevity as an instrumental one - and most people's actions seem broadly consistent with that to me - though obviously there are a few methusalahites.
"I said MOST organisms - and referred to a specific example: kids vs lifespan."
You were obviously not excluding humans, since you then said immediately afterward:
"It appears to be fairly easy to trade kids for longer life - adopt a regime of dietary energy restriction. Very few people do that. I figure they mostly value kids over a long life."
If you had said "most organisms would prefer to die in a few years rather than be sterilized, but humans are different because we have more complex value systems" you might at least have a case, but you're very clearly trying to extent your argument from biology to humans (at least most humans) and it very clearly fails.