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eli_sennesh comments on Why I haven't signed up for cryonics - Less Wrong
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That's... actually kinda sad, and I think I'm going to go feed my brain some warm fuzzies to counter it.
Trying to live forever out of spite instead of living well in the here and now that's available? Silly humans.
Don't worry, poiuyt is making all of this up. I don't personally know of anyone to whom this imaginary scenario applies. The most common sentiment about cryonics is "God dammit I have to stop procrastinating", hence the enjoinders are welcome; as for their origin point, well, have you read HPMOR up to Ch. 96?
I feel that I am being misunderstood: I do not suggest that people sign up for cryonics out of spite. I imagine that almost everyone signed up for cryonics does so because they actually believe it will work. That is as it should be.
I am only pointing out that being told that I am stupid for signing up for cryonics is disheartening. Even if it is not a rational argument against cryonics, the disapproval of others still affects me. I know this because my friends and family make it a point to regularly inform me of the fact that cryonics is "a cult", that I am being "scammed out of my money" by Alcor and that even if it did work, I am "evil and wrong" for wanting it. Being told those things fills me with doubts and saps my willpower. Hearing someone on the pro-cryonics side of things reminding me of my reasons for signing up is reassuring. It restores the willpower I lose hearing those around me insulting my belief. Hearing that cryonics is good and I am good for signing up isn't evidence that cryonics will work. Hearing that non-cryonicists will "regret" their choice certainly isn't evidence that cryonics is the most effective way to save lives. But it is what I need to hear in order to not cave in to peer pressure and cancel my policy.
I get my beliefs from the evidence, but I'll take my motivation from wherever I can find it.
Eliezer, I have been a frequent and enthusiastic participant on /r/hpmor for years before I decided to buck up and make a LessWrong account.
I don't recall someone answering my question in the other place I posted it, so I might as well ask you (since you would know): provided I am unwilling to believe current cryonic techniques actually work (even given a Friendly superintelligence that wants to bring people back), where can I be putting money towards other means of preserving people or life-extension in general?
Gwern had a posting once on something called "brain plastination", which supposedly works "better" in some sense than freezing in liquid nitrogen, even though that still relies on em'ing you to bring you back, which frankly I find frightening as all hell. Is there active research into that? Into improved cryonics techniques?
Or should I just donate to anti-aging research on grounds that keeping people alive and healthy for longer before they die is a safer bet than, you know, finding ways to preserve the dead such that they can be brought back to life later?
The Brain Preservation Foundation may be what you're looking for.
There's good and bad spite. Good spite is something like, "They call me mad! But I was right all along. Muahahaha!" and feeling proud and happy that you made the right choice despite opposition from others. Bad spite is something like, "I was right and they were wrong, and now they're suffering for their mistakes. Serves them right". One is accomplishment, the other is schadenfreude.