= 27d567bc2d48d9f40e9ccc20ea370b15)
Cyan2 comments on Lonely Dissent - Less Wrong
You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.
= 783df68a0f980790206b9ea87794c5b6)
Loading…= b715d02e85f7b3b4ae65ca3d3e450868)
Subscribe to RSS Feed
Powered by Reddit
= f037147d6e6c911a85753b9abdedda8d)
You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.
Comments (80)
"They usually resort to the script of presuming a personal insult" instead of rightly apprehending the point you're making, which is...?
This is the difficulty I have with your comments, Caledonian. You always leave the interesting part out. (This is not a personal insult, by the way -- just a straightforward observation.)
I would imagine (and, I see poke below has mentioned this off-hand) that people are...not that interesting.
Oh, I am sure you are. Like, personally. But, really, would you want to resurrect a random 1850s person? Aside from kitsch or perhaps historical interests (if they were an interesting or influential personality), there are certainly better ways to spend your time.
It's not going to be like Encino Man, I am pretty sure.
Edit: I don't think I agree...but I'm not sure yet.
Actually, I think that historians would love to wake up random people from way back when, whether or not they were famous at the time.
You have posted this several times; please delete the excess.
Sorry, I didn't mean to do that, and I don't know how it happened.
Actually, I think that historians would love to wake up random people from way back when, whether or not they were famous or influential at the time.
Actually, I think that historians would love to wake up random people from way back when, whether or not they were famous or influential at the time.
Actually, I think that historians would love to wake up random people from way back when, whether or not they were famous or influential at the time
Actually, I think that historians would love to wake up random people from way back when, whether or not they were famous or influential at the time
Actually, I think that historians would love to wake up random people from way back when, whether or not they were famous or influential at the time.
OK. I'll follow up. They might want to, but what events would that trigger? The benefits might be clear, but for what costs?
Firstly, you would add another person to the population pool. That addition, in and of itself, is probably a negligible effect. Humans do this with some regularity. It is unlikely that the addition of one specific historical figure would push us over some theoretical tipping point.
What would be a greater cost would be one of rights: does the resurrected "owe" anything for being plucked from history, financially or metaphorically? What psychological toll might be exacted on an 200's era Roman slave when he shows up in Chicago in 2023? Assuming he could even grasp what had happened and learn a modern language, how is he to provide for himself? If he cannot, who? The historian, perhaps. What a decidedly high-risk research proposal: what if your resurrection is a boring fool?
Sure, I think it'd be neat to interview Hannibal or Twain or any number of folks from the past, I just think it might be a bad idea.
Probably reading into the idea a bit much at this point...
Presumably the capital investment everyone frozen gives to the Cryonics Institute would pay for their revival, or perhaps just for the revival and re-education of some of the more interesting people, who would then, hopefully feeling some empathy for the remaining popsicles, pay to have them reanimated later.
I'll just try to be interesting, and somewhat self-sacrificing so someone who reads any of my work might feel guilty enough to have me reanimated.
Or we might just be reanimated to serve as soldiers in a future war as our coping mechanisms leave us just the right type of crazy to stay mostly sane in harsh environments. Who knows?
Now cryonics are starting to sound like a religion; if you are an interesting person, and have a good enough reputation, then someone will bother to reanimate you and you will live forever. I like it.
Three years later reply: People who chose cryonics are very likely to be unusual people, as evidenced by their choosing cryonics.
I also dispute your premise, on the grounds that people aren't complete jerks.