One source of hope against death is Afterlife-ism. Some say that this justifies it as a Noble Lie. But there are better (because more plausible) Third Alternatives, including nanotech, actuarial escape velocity, cryonics, and the Singularity. If supplying hope were the real goal of the Noble Lie, advocates would prefer these alternatives. But the real goal is to excuse a fixed belief from criticism, not to supply hope.
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I have to say, giving up theism and the heaven belief is a painful process even if you are embracing cryonics. Here are some of the sources of discomfort:
Cryonics is not certain to work, even to a person who embraces the idea -- their suspension might not be good enough, or they could be thawed by accident.
The afterlife supposed to be granted is not eternal by nature, it is a finite extension of life -- unbounded by aging but not proof against accident.
Cryonics violates societal norms, practically forcing one to adapt to a rebellious (or arrogant) narrative for self-descriptive purposes.
Most people you know are not going to sign up for this, so you will be separated from them even if it works.
People who do sign up may get an inferior preservation than you or suffer premature thawing, so fellow cryonicists are not guaranteed to be there with you in the future.
Ideas like whether you are okay with uploading take on new significance as you may easily find yourself in a situation where copy-and-paste is the only available survival mechanism.
Reproduction -- and all that grand circle of life stuff -- loses some of its significance as you can no longer claim it is necessary to replace old generations with new ones.
People will think your decision was made in ignorance of any or all of the above, and pattern-match you as delusional or foolish.
Even if it's cheap, you still do have to think about money (and how much less of it remains for your heirs) in this context.
Today's post, Third Alternatives for Afterlife-ism was originally published on May 8, 2007. A summary (from the LW wiki):
Discuss the post here (rather than in the comments of the original post).
This post is part of a series rerunning Eliezer Yudkowsky's old posts so those interested can (re-)read and discuss them. The previous post was The Third Alternative, and you can use the sequence_reruns tag or rss feed to follow the rest of the series.
Sequence reruns are a community-driven effort. You can participate by re-reading the sequence post, discussing it, posting the next day's sequence reruns post, summarizing forthcoming articles on the wiki, or creating exercises. Go here for more details, or to discuss the Sequence Reruns.