DanielLC comments on Ethics and rationality of suicide - Less Wrong
You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.
You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.
Comments (190)
I can't recall the name of it, but I think there was documentary about people jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge. The filmmakers interviewed a bunch of people who had survived their attempts, and most or all of them regretted jumping as soon as they were airborne. I'm in favor of a right to suicide (not to be confused with thinking it is a good idea in the vast majority of cases) but I think anyone who is really set on going through with it should be encouraged to do so by means of a slow-acting poison that has an antidote, or some analogous method, just in case they discover an unexpected revealed preference for living after beginning to kill themselves.
The problem is, they didn't learn anything after they jumped. They hadn't changed their priors. They hadn't changed their desires.
The were being irrational before they jumped, irrational after they jumped, or both. With out knowing which is true, we can't say when their decision should count.
I assume you mean 'they didn't learn anything by jumping', which doesn't seem obviously true to me: They could have made predictions in the form of "when I jump, I will feel X" or "when I'm no longer in a position to plausibly feel responsible for taking care of X, I will feel Y" or "when I am certain I will die, I will feel X", and had those falsified.
I guess "didn't learn anything relevant after they jumped" would be most accurate.
Unless they actually killed themselves for a few seconds of relief.