lsparrish

Avoid inflationary use of terms

Inflationary terms! You see them everywhere. And for those who actually know and care about the subject matter they can be very frustrating. These terms are notorious for being used in contexts where: 1. They are only loosely applicable at best. 2. There exists a better word that is more specific. 3. The topic has a far bias. Some examples: * Rational * Evolution * Singularity * Emergent * Nanotech * Cryogenics * Faith The problem is not that these words are meaningless in their original form, nor that you shouldn't ever use them. The problem is that they often get used in stupid ways that make them much less meaningful. By that I mean, less useful for keeping a focus on the topic and understanding what the person is really talking about. For example, terms like Nanotech (or worse, "Nanobot") do apply in a certain loose sense to several kinds of chemistry and biological innovations that are currently in vogue. Nonetheless, each time the term is used to refer to these things it makes it much harder to know if you are referring to Drexlerian Mechanosynthesis. Hint: If you get your grant money by convincing someone you are working on one thing whereas you are really working on something completely different, that's fraud. Similarly, Cryogenics is the science of keeping things really cold. And of course Cryonics is a form of that. But saying "Cryogenics" when you really mean exactly Cryonics is an incredibly harmful practice which actual Cryonicists generally avoid. Most people who work in Cryogenics have nothing to do with Cryonics, and this kind of confusion in popular culture has apparently engendered animosity towards Cryonics among Cryogenics specialists. Recently I fell prey to something like this with respect to the term "Rational". I wanted to know in general terms what the best programming language for a newbie would be and why. I wanted some in depth analysis, from a group I trust to do so. (And I wasn't disappointed -- we have some very knowl

102May 30, 2012

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Effective Altruism and Cryonics, Contest Results

Thank you to each of the five contestants who entered an essay into the contest that was started a little over a week ago to explore cryonics as a prospective target for effective altruism. The five entries (listed chronologically) are: 1. jkaufman 2. deleted 3. RomeoStevens 4. jaime2000 5. Ishaan...

Nov 19, 201322

[Prize] Essay Contest: Cryonics and Effective Altruism

I'm starting a contest for the best essay describing why a rational person of a not particularly selfish nature might consider cryonics an exceptionally worthwhile place to allocate resources. There are three distinct questions relating to this, and you can pick any one of them to focus on, or answer...

Nov 8, 20135

Bitcoins are not digital greenbacks

Should you probably donate a bitcoin to your future self? Bitcoin has been in the news a bit lately. In case anyone hasn't been following recent events, its price hit $266 per coin, toppled to $50, and then climbed back to a rate which has been between $80 and $140....

Apr 19, 201311

Bitcoin Cryonics Fund

The bitcoins that I had set aside for a Cryonics contest two years ago (and were unredeemed) are suddenly worth a lot more. Details: I had added 10 bitcoins to get things started, and there were 4.75 worth of additional donations. These were partially lost when the hosted online wallet...

Apr 14, 201311

[LINK] Open Source Software Developer with Terminal Illness Hopes to Opt Out of Death

Aaron Winborn writes: > TLDR: http://venturist.info/aaron-winborn-charity.html > > So maybe you've heard about my plight, in which I wrestle Lou Gehrig in this losing battle to stay alive. And I use the phrase "staying alive" loosely, as many would shudder at the thought of becoming locked in with ALS, completely...

Feb 13, 201322

[Link] Aschwin de Wolf on Chemical Brain Preservation

Aschwin de Wolf, a cryonics researcher at Advanced Neural Biosciences, has written two new articles discussing reasons for sticking with cryopreservation as opposed to chemopreservation. Chemical Brain Preservation and Human Suspended Animation Excerpt: > Executive Summary > > Scientific and practical considerations strongly support cryopreservation rather than chemopreservation for the...

Jan 15, 201310

[Event] Symposium on Cryonics and Brain-Threatening Disorders

Upcoming event: > On Saturday July 7, 2012, the Institute for Evidence Based Cryonics and Cryonics Northwest will organize a symposium on cryonics and brain-threatening disorders in Portland, Oregon. The symposium will start at 09:00 am at the offices of Kaos Softwear. Entrance to the event is free. > >...

Jul 1, 20123

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lsparrish

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lsparrish

Avoid inflationary use of terms

Social status hacks from The Improv Wiki

Cryonics Wants To Be Big

Optimism versus cryonics

lsparrish

Effective Altruism and Cryonics, Contest Results

[Prize] Essay Contest: Cryonics and Effective Altruism

Bitcoins are not digital greenbacks

Bitcoin Cryonics Fund

[LINK] Open Source Software Developer with Terminal Illness Hopes to Opt Out of Death

[Link] Aschwin de Wolf on Chemical Brain Preservation

[Event] Symposium on Cryonics and Brain-Threatening Disorders

Avoid inflationary use of terms

Social status hacks from The Improv Wiki

Cryonics Wants To Be Big

Optimism versus cryonics

Effective Altruism and Cryonics, Contest Results

[Prize] Essay Contest: Cryonics and Effective Altruism

Bitcoins are not digital greenbacks

Bitcoin Cryonics Fund

[LINK] Open Source Software Developer with Terminal Illness Hopes to Opt Out of Death

[Link] Aschwin de Wolf on Chemical Brain Preservation

[Event] Symposium on Cryonics and Brain-Threatening Disorders