James_Miller comments on Against Cryonics & For Cost-Effective Charity - Less Wrong

10 Post author: multifoliaterose 10 August 2010 03:59AM

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Comment author: multifoliaterose 10 August 2010 06:04:46AM *  10 points [-]

Getting a heart transplant has instrumental value that cryonics does not.

A heart transplant enables the recipient to continue being a productive member of society. If the recipient is doing a lot to help other people then the cost of the heart transplant is easily outweighed by the recipients' productivity.

By way of contrast, if society gets to the point where cryopreserved people can be restored, it seems likely that society will have advanced to the point where such people are much less vital to society.

Also, the odds of success for a heart transplant are probably significantly higher than the odds of success for cryorestoration.

Edit: See a remark in a post by Jason Fehr at the GiveWell Mailing List:

Think of Bill Clinton, who has now had a heart bypass as well as a cardiac catheterization at age 63. The world will almost certainly be better off having Bill Clinton around for a few more decades running his foundation, thanks to all that cardiovascular research we've been discussing.

I don't think that having Bill Clinton cryopreserved would be nearly as valuable to society as the cardiovascular operations that he underwent were.

Comment author: James_Miller 10 August 2010 01:44:31PM 6 points [-]

But if while President Bill Clinton knew he was going to be cryopreserved he might have caused the government to devote more resources to artificial intelligence research and existential risks.