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lessdazed comments on Life is Good, More Life is Better - Less Wrong Discussion
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Don't worry so much about what arguments are used to support a policy. Arguments appeal to values. Figure out what you value, and write the important things out. Include a category for things you don't value valuing (e.g. love of sugar) separate from the rest. Then, for each value, ask if your dying or living would make the state of the world more in accord with your values. But since you mentioned a specific argument, I will mention an analogous one I have heard:
"The world is becoming ever less religious, and atheists don't have enough children to replace themselves. If we don't fight secularism, humanity will die out."
If someone uses the "i-word" when you simply talk about living longer than a hundred or so, I recommend rolling up a newspaper, swatting them on the nose once with it, and repeating "No" several times, clearly and firmly.
The other side of that is don't bother to argue against someone else's stated argument unless you also identify and appeal to the values that caused the argument. Knocking down a rationalization for a value only prompts people to come up with another rationalization.
I've perceived that. Let it be noted that throughout one conversation about what it would be like to stop death by old age, the person with whom I was speaking used five of the arguments I've listed.
So have you come up with what value they're busy rationalizing with all those arguments?
Is it just that they have despair over death, but have convinced themselves that it is good, and so their aversion to talk of immortality is protecting their protection against death?
While we're on death, have you ever noticed how "The Bad Guy" is often after immortality. I went over to TV Tropes, and interestingly, I couldn't find that trope listed - Villain for Immortality.
I haven't had a correct social situation in which to test for that value. The content of their arguments doesn't seem to lead anywhere because they're a matter of belief in belief - they desperately want the iron that's going to strike them within this century to be at least cold. So, I can't say what the value is until I've got down a list of possible values and found ways of testing for them.
The fault is all mine on that point - sloppy vocabulary. Let it be noted that I repent of the imprecise usage.
And, in fact, that may be part of the fallacious argument bits of my mind have against living; "Aaaah, it could be forever and that will be awful!" Bad brains.