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diegocaleiro comments on Cryocrastinating? Send me (or someone else) money! - Less Wrong Discussion

14 Post author: Stuart_Armstrong 17 April 2013 01:08PM

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Comment author: diegocaleiro 17 April 2013 04:15:14PM *  2 points [-]

The best term is "Cryocrastinating" Stuart. It's one of the best memes to be born here, don't let it die. Freeze it.

Comment author: advancedatheist 17 April 2013 04:31:56PM 14 points [-]

The term is "Cryocrastinating" Stuart. It's one of the best memes to be born here,

Excuse me. I coined the verb "to cryocrastinate" over 20 years ago: http://www.nanodic.com/Nanomaterial/Cryocrastinate.htm

Cryonicists also called cryonics "an ambulance ride to the future" way back then as well, despite the phrase's current imputation to Eliezer: http://www.alcor.org/Library/html/casereport9209.html

Yet people wonder why I find Eliezer and other LessWrongers annoying because they've moved into the cryonics community and now act like they invented its key ideas and phrases. James D. Miller's presents such a one-sided, narrow and frankly preposterous view of cryonics in Singularity Rising that I literally threw my paperback copy across the room in frustration with it. Does Miller describe the contributions of people who actually had something to do with cryonics, namely, Bob Ettinger, Saul Kent, Curtis Henderson, Art Quaife, Fred Chamberlain, Jerry Leaf, Hugh Hixon, Mike Darwin? No, instead he invokes Eliezer and Robin as the current go-to authority figures on the subject, yet these guys' experience with cryopreservaiton probably hasn't extended beyond putting groceries in the kitchen freezer.

Comment author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 17 April 2013 11:31:14PM 18 points [-]

I have never claimed credit for either phrase, and fully support all efforts to see them attributed appropriately.

Comment author: Risto_Saarelma 17 April 2013 06:35:02PM 7 points [-]

Then again, if you present the thing with faces who got in relatively recently, people's two-second first impression might be more of a "hey, new thing, shiny" and not "if people were already going on about this stuff 20 years ago and and it still has very little traction, something must be wrong with it".

Comment author: lfghjkl 17 April 2013 05:02:34PM 4 points [-]

Isn't it better that the ideas get spread rather than who gets the credit?

Comment author: gwern 17 April 2013 05:42:39PM 12 points [-]

One can do both, as in the case of OP who is both spreading the idea and also a claim about who deserves the credit for the idea.

(And credit is not neutral; if one hears that Darwin, rather than Eliezer or Hanson, coined a term or idea, one might go read Chronopause.com because of it and learn a great deal of things a cryonicists ought to know.)

Comment author: lfghjkl 17 April 2013 06:52:48PM 0 points [-]

One can do both, as in the case of OP who is both spreading the idea and also a claim about who deserves the credit for the idea.

I agree that ideally everyone should do both, but it seemed like advancedatheist was blaming LessWrong, Eliezer and Hanson for other people's failure to give credit to the correct people. Attacking Eliezer for getting too much credit for spreading the idea of cryonics seems counterproductive to the goal spreading this idea (which I presume is an actual goal of the cryonics community advancedatheist is a part of).

(And credit is not neutral; if one hears that Darwin, rather than Eliezer or Hanson, coined a term or idea, one might go read Chronopause.com because of it and learn a great deal of things a cryonicists ought to know.)

I'm confused by your point here. Are you advocating that credit for an idea should go towards the most famous person possible, so it gets the most exposure? Isn't this the very thing advancedatheist is complaining about?

Comment author: gwern 17 April 2013 08:26:46PM 1 point [-]

I'm confused by your point here. Are you advocating that credit for an idea should go towards the most famous person possible, so it gets the most exposure?

My point here is that Eliezer gets read plenty on the topic of cryonics, perhaps more than he should, while people like Darwin get read too little, even by people who should be reading them. Allocating credit towards Eliezer and away from someone like Darwin exacerbates this.

Comment author: James_Miller 17 April 2013 09:00:53PM 0 points [-]

My cryonics thesis was that if you think that any of the futures predicted by Kurzweil, Hanson, or Eliezer are plausible then you should sign up for cryonics.

Comment author: diegocaleiro 17 April 2013 04:40:25PM 3 points [-]

By here I mean't "the rationalist community" or "among lesswrongers"

Both were correct. By all means I did not mean anything, that could ever be offensive to anyone.

Comment author: James_Miller 17 April 2013 08:43:13PM 6 points [-]

My book only briefly discussed cryonics but extensively discussed Eliezer and Robin and so when I discussed cryonics I connected it to these men. And yes since I only briefly discussed cryonics my discussion was narrow.

A intellectual history of cryonics doesn't really belong in a book focusing on the economic implications of future increases in human and artificial intelligence.

Comment author: Stuart_Armstrong 18 April 2013 09:31:03AM 2 points [-]

Title adjusted, thanks!

Comment author: Kawoomba 17 April 2013 05:31:02PM 2 points [-]

yet these guys' experience with cryopreservaiton probably hasn't extended beyond putting groceries in the kitchen freezer

Hey, those cucumbers are gonna live forever.

Comment author: Yuyuko 17 April 2013 06:08:08PM 1 point [-]

Immortal cucumbers make the best salads.

Comment author: Kawoomba 17 April 2013 06:13:36PM 5 points [-]

If a moment of the cucumber's life is worth anything at all (epsilon > 0), and that worth doesn't converge towards 0 arbitrarily close (series has no limit), then the life of that single immortal cucumber is worth more than the existence of all currently living humans. You monster.

Not even taking into account the terrible torture of skinning the cucumber alive, making the salad.

Comment author: Yuyuko 17 April 2013 07:02:14PM *  7 points [-]

You have me at a disadvantage! Enlightenment dawns. It would clearly be an act of greatest impropriety not to donate all of my proceds to a charity which evaluates charities which themselves purchase a maximal number of cucumbers for the lowest possible price per. Being quite dead myself, and thus bearing no particular cost of living, I estimate the full sum of my household income could be devoted to the task without breaking the bank, as it were. But, hold -- would it be better to direct my humble servant to the task of increasing the household income directly? Or simply turn her into fertilizer in which future generations of cucumbers might be grown? I estimate her mass at perhaps 43 kilograms. Being profoundly ignorant in matters of horticulture, I attempted to discreetly inquire whether that might not be enough fertilizer to sustain the growth of a plot yielding 3^^^3 cucumbers in all -- a quantity so great that their aggregate benefit would clearly justify parting her from the use of her flesh. She has become suspicious of my motives, I fear, and won't answer. I find this behavior profoundly selfish on her part!

Oh, but must we give up winter melon as well?

Comment author: James_Miller 17 April 2013 09:08:00PM 3 points [-]

When I eat the cucumber it becomes part of me, a moment of my life times the part of me that is that cucumber is worth more than the life of a cucumber alone, and through cryonics I intend to live forever.

Yuyuko is a monster if and only if he has not signed up for cryonics.

Comment author: gwern 17 April 2013 10:39:00PM 8 points [-]

a moment of my life times the part of me that is that cucumber is worth more than the life of a cucumber alone

Hopefully when the grey goo eats you, you'll appreciate the finer points of your argument.

Comment author: [deleted] 20 April 2013 09:01:26AM *  1 point [-]

I think you're treating “worth” as an one-place word, while it isn't.

Comment author: Leonhart 21 April 2013 05:53:20PM *  1 point [-]

I understand Yuyuko opted for an alternate suspension mechanism, as her local cryonics provider only accepts frogs.

Comment author: Yuyuko 18 April 2013 08:02:53PM *  1 point [-]

Being now quite thoroughly postmortem, it would seem an act of futile vanity to attempt it. Oh, but it does sound deliciously novel! Perhaps you would be willing to let me partake of your form instead, and preserve the least choice of parts in such a manner? I daresay it would take a full day of roasting and require a great deal of salt. You shall have the consolation of becoming a part of me, a moment of my...well, at any rate existence, times the part of me that is your mortal coil is worth more than your life alone (to borrow your eccentric phrasing!) Through basic inertia I expect to exist forever, so your finite loss is more than exceeded by infinite gain.

I do hope you consider my proposal, and solicit your opinion as to whether you would go better with rice or sweet potato.