Tool ideology

25 PhilGoetz 09 September 2011 10:37PM

Follow-up to Journal article about politics and mindkilling.  That post showed that people can be convinced that a view is correct by being told that their political party endorses it, even if their party actually opposes it.  A similar, but stranger, effect, is that people can be convinced that a view is correct because their favorite software implements it - even if they have stated that the view is wrong just minutes ago.

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An observation on cryocrastination

9 AndrewH 22 July 2009 08:41PM

Why do people cryocrastinate? The most common explanation I’ve heard from intelligent people for not getting cryonics is that the money is better spent on some altruistic cause. By itself there is nothing wrong with this belief, but irrationality lies near.

Before I continue, I am not here to argue that cryonics works or not. That has been done before. From this point on, I will assume cryonics derives expected utility from it giving a reasonable chance of continuing life past many currently terminal events, with life being a valuable thing.

We begin with a quick overview of the cost of cryonics. Let us break our cost analysis into two parts: acquisition of the cryonics and life insurance contracts and maintenance of these contracts.

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