ata comments on Undiscriminating Skepticism - Less Wrong

97 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 14 March 2010 11:23PM

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Comment author: sketerpot 15 March 2010 09:43:45PM 9 points [-]

Hey, good idea. New question for getting evidence of rationality: "How do you feel about cannibalism? Not killing people, just the act of eating human meat. Imagine that the meat was vat-grown, or you're a starving survivor of a plane crash, or something."

Comment author: ata 15 March 2010 10:04:57PM *  10 points [-]

I remember once reading Richard Stallman saying that when he dies, if his body cannot be used for medical research, he would want it to be used for cannibalism or necrophilia.

A rather weird thing to say, but on reflection, not quite as weird as people's usual thoughts on death — "I want my body to be put into the ground so it can decompose" or "I want my body to be burned so it can be of no use to anybody" — right?

Comment author: gregconen 15 March 2010 11:28:32PM *  20 points [-]

Well, along with medical research, organ donation and cryonics also probably exceed the expected utility of cannibalism or necrophilia.

That said, I'm not sure they would be mutually exclusive. My head for my future self, my innards for the sick, my penis and anus for lovers, and my arms and legs for the hungry.

Comment author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 15 March 2010 11:30:32PM 20 points [-]

My head for my future self, my innards for the sick, my penis and anus for lovers, and my arms and legs for the hungry.

NEW UTILITARIAN LITMUS TEST

Comment author: dclayh 16 March 2010 07:31:56PM 3 points [-]

Perhaps a slightly more poetic phrasing like "My head for myself, my organs for the sick, my crotch for the horny, and my limbs for the hungry."

(Of course the most tasty meat is on the torso, at least in cows...)

Comment author: Liron 16 March 2010 03:29:10AM *  4 points [-]

Cryonics and organ donation is really a winning combination. It solves the organ donor's worry that doctors might not take long shots at saving your life if they can harvest your organs instead.

Comment author: MBlume 25 December 2010 08:03:53AM 1 point [-]

As I understand, current cryo practices use your circulatory system to get cryopreservant into your brain, and this leaves your organs useless.

Is this wrong?

Comment author: Vaniver 25 December 2010 10:47:41AM 3 points [-]

This is correct but I imagine it could be bypassed, if you severed the head and used the carotid arteries / jugular veins. I imagine that's much messier and more difficult than doing the whole body through one well-defined entry point, but may be possible.

Comment author: Liron 25 December 2010 09:54:19AM 0 points [-]

shit

Comment author: Kevin 15 March 2010 10:17:39PM *  1 point [-]

I tried searching to find a citation for this and the most obvious keywords just take me here. 50 karma to anyone who has enough Google-fu to find me a citation.

Comment author: ata 15 March 2010 10:26:44PM 3 points [-]

I was thinking of the fourth post on this page. Looks like I misremembered, he didn't mention cannibalism, but given the rest of that post, I'd bet money that he'd be fine with it (perhaps as a third choice).

Comment author: Jack 15 March 2010 10:25:13PM 1 point [-]

Here.

Command-F "corpse".

Comment author: thomblake 15 March 2010 11:01:38PM 3 points [-]

Command-F "corpse".

In context and reading quickly, I thought you were suggesting a macro in Emacs.