I think this ad makes LW and EA look cultish, because this ad sounds like hero worship and sexual innuendo. I was especially troubled to see this link on the EA Facebook page, where many potential/new EAs who don't know who Bostrom is, have lower weirdness tolerance, and have still-forming understanding of effective altruism, could see it.

Conscientious and discreet... Able to keep flexible hours (some days a lot of work, others not much)...Has a good personality 'fit' with Bostrom... Willing to do some tasks that are not high-status... Willing to help Bostrom with both his professional and personal life (to free up his attention)...

I showed this to a few smart young people, the type EAs want to reach out to, and they said it sounded "sketchy" "unprofessional" and "kind of like prostitution." Maybe it's totally fine and even attractive for LW, but I think EA leaders trying to recruit really need to be more thoughtful about their language. I think a different description should have been written up for that forum.

At the very least, it's very unconventional. Ads for personal assistants usually mention specific duties like "answering emails" and "preparing food," not just all-purpose service, so that people know what they are getting into.

tl:dr This ad sounds sketchy to me, and I really wish it wasn't linked on the EA Facebook group, where it can scare off new/potential EAs

hugs

There's a lot of good comments on this already, so I won't add another one in the same spirit. I feel with you and I hope you can resolve this conflict in a way that's good for you.

I know we've talked about this briefly in the Study Hall, but I'd like to mention it again here: Your mileage may vary, but I got a lot out of reading "Dance of Anger". It's exactly about how to navigate situations in which you feel angry or frustrated and how to use that anger constructively without lashing out or letting it boil internally while not showing it to anyone.

It's not expensive as a kindle version, and an easy read. You can probably get most value out of it in two hours.

I doubt that this is the right forum to use the "you may not be smart, but you can still make a difference" line as an ad.

Better framing: "Want to be Nick Bostrom's sidekick?"

... I'd take it.

I'm happy to take part this year! :)

On a different note, this would read a lot better if you'd spellchecked it before posting.

Hi Roland, since I'm currently in the process of signing up for cryonics I have looked into this a bit too. There are indeed no other options (yet), and I would personally be wary about trusting a new institute, anyways. There has been a number of institutes before that went bankrupt before or failed due to personal conflict amongst the founders, so this is definitely a concern. I also don't know how a for-profit model like KrioRus's will work for cryonics. I live in Germany and I've been informed that the transportation of the body over the border is tricky, but they might have added more options by now. That said, in some cases where institutes failed to survive, the bodies were transported and stored with Alcor before, so not all might be lost.

About your questions: 1.) This seems to be a question of what you think future technology is capable of. I've heard that considering what medicine is capable of at present, the damage cannot be repaired. There is still formation of ice crystals and macroscopic breaks of the tissue when the body freezes from outside to inside. That of course doesn't mean it will be impossible in the future too, though. However, it might be more practical to scan the body and build a new one or upload rather than repairing the broken one.

2.) It depends on your country. I know there are efforts to work together with embalmers in Germany, so if that goes well they would be able to perform the vitrification process in Germany and fly the body to the US without further damage. I think there is a working team in England that will provide first care, but I'm unsure what that entails and whether they will fly to other countries as well.

Take my words with a grain of salt - a lot of this information is what I recall from a presentation on the topic I recently heard and I don't have in-depth knowledge of the topic. If you want to talk to a better-informed member of the German cryonics association (DGAB), I will happily put you in contact.

So I prefer using words, instead of relying on an unreliable channel. I also think that some people are genuinely good at reading body language, but there are many who merely overestimate their own ability.

Reading when someone is uncomfortable while you hug them is an easier skill then reading it before you hug them. At the weekend Anne was walking around with the written word "cuddle" in addition to the free hugs sticker. I greeted her the first time with what was in her words more of a cuddle then a hug. I could feel that it was too much for the situation and I'm usually calibrated well enough that I don't act in a way that creates that reaction in another person. Enough for me to reduce the amount of physical contact that I initiated in later interaction with other people because I had the feeling that my automatic calibration skills were broken at that point.

A day later Anne came to me to give me feedback and she basically didn't tell me anything I didn't already knew myself. But in case I would have my own feedback loops, that feedback would probably have been quite valuable. Having an environment where it's possible to give that kind of feedback openly is very valuable.

Beforehand I hugged a few guys who I would categorise as someone who's system I says: "Hugging is at the rand of my comfort zone" and who's system II says: "I want to be hugged". For interaction with guys that usually means it's okay to hug them, especially for the rationalist crowd who think their system II is what matters. For male-to-female physical contact on the other hand you usually want that both system I and system II of the woman agrees to the physical contact.

Free hug sign itself don't tell you the line that tells you which intensity of physical contact is welcome and which isn't. They just tell you that you can hug the person. There still the possibility to have to much contact and walking around with the heuristic that you treat people based on their tags, reduces the amount one reacts to body language of other people.

To the latter, your interlocutor says (or likely, thinks to themselves):

"Uh, actually, I was rather enjoying that conversation. I thought it had value. But I guess I was wrong; it seems you do not find me interesting, or think that I am annoying. That hurts."

Working as intended?

This is a fantastic idea, and thanks for posted this as I'm sure I'm not the only one who missed the initial announcement. I wish I could come up with some way to use it consistently at work (Not sure whether employer would care about having tinychat open; definitely can't video at work. Other people using this at work, what's your employment situation?). At the very least, I'll keep it in mind for working from home/personal projects at home.