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Giles comments on Cryonics as Charity - Less Wrong Discussion

3 Post author: jkaufman 10 November 2012 02:21PM

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Comment author: Giles 10 November 2012 11:02:24PM 4 points [-]

I think it would be fairer to compare your $1000/thousandsoflife_years figure against other equally speculative back-of-the-envelope calculations, instead of against AMF. Generally more speculative causes (such as xrisk reduction) can produce better expected returns, but with a greater chance that we're somehow fooling ourselves or ignoring an unknown unknown.

Also, where did the $1000 estimate come from? Does it include the probability of success of cryonics and the probability that we survive for thousands of subjective years without destroying ourselves?

Comment author: jkaufman 11 November 2012 03:13:46AM 1 point [-]

where did the $1000 estimate come from?

It was an estimate from someone at an optimial philanthropy meetup. I don't think it included any improbability discounts.