gwern comments on On the unpopularity of cryonics: life sucks, but at least then you die - Less Wrong

72 Post author: gwern 29 July 2011 09:06PM

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Comment author: gwern 05 August 2011 08:47:45PM 5 points [-]

Yes, because there are positive arguments for cryonics working and not having negative effects besides the well-known ones. Fantasizing about religious fanatics taking over during your lifetime is about as sensible as fantasizing about another group of fanatics taking over and cutting off healthcare to everyone who didn't signup on the grounds that their revealed preference is to die sooner. (Notice the isomorphism here to issues with Pascal's Wager and the 'atheist's god'.)

Comment author: brazil84 05 August 2011 09:02:35PM 5 points [-]

Yes, because there are positive arguments for cryonics working and not having negative effects besides the well-known ones. Fantasizing about religious fanatics taking over during your lifetime is about as sensible as fantasizing about another group of fanatics taking over and cutting off healthcare to everyone who didn't signup on the grounds that their revealed preference is to die sooner.

I agree and that's my main point: The case for cryonics depends on there being a decent chance that it will actually work. As opposed to some epsilon.

Comment author: soreff 05 August 2011 09:29:28PM 3 points [-]

A useful point of comparison here is a part-per-million chance Looking at the other actions which cost a micromort, I'd say that if the odds were worse than a part per million, filling out the sign-up paperwork alone would outweigh the benefit. (My personal best guess is that the odds are closer to 1%, which, for me, is close to the break even point, mostly due to the financial part of the costs.)

Comment author: lsparrish 05 August 2011 11:06:28PM 1 point [-]

I agree with that. However the term "tiny" can be misleading -- 1% is pretty small compared to what I would think reasonable, but would still be a fair motivator for a $28k expenditure if your life is valued at >$2.8 million.