This post is not about arguments in favor of or against cryonics. I would just like to share a particular emotional response of mine as the topic became hot for me after not thinking about it at all for nearly a decade. Recently, I have signed up for cryonics, as...
This question may be either trivial to answer and I just don‘t get it, or it may be highly controversial. I am trying to pose my problem as shortly as I can. What is responsible for my subjective experience of the present moment (or rather, the immediate past, taking information...
This may be a bad idea that acted upon may do more harm than good, but I propose that we should find a way to induce a controlled and stable state of hypomania in people who are willing to enhance their functional capabilities. Hypomania is a state that frequently occurs...
But consider: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-38626-y
„We found that participants with higher intelligence were only quicker when responding to simple questions, while they took more time to solve hard questions.“
I was writing a lengthy answer about how I struggled with similar questions before actually becoming a father and how they all became relativized, but then it seemed a better idea to just give a little piece of advice: If you have a partner that seems adequate to you, go for it, you‘re probably already overqualified. Your words already speak of the love you will able to lavish on a child, and that is the most important thing to give. The rest is, as always, a matter of adaptation of strategy and tactics to circumstances that are beyond our control.
This is what I needed to hear. Thank you.
Edit: I‘m not sure anymore. It gives me aches to even think about what might be worth preserving and what possibly isn‘t anymore.
Warning: potentially hazardous line of thought.
It‘s too late now for my father, but I have thought about consequences for the rest of my family that is willing to take the chance. My plan is now, in the case of onset of any type of dementia, to opt in for assisted suicide before too much damage will have occured. Careful planning should allow for near-optimal preservation, to the extent possible when and if this rather radical step becomes necessary. What could I possibly lose? Some years of cognitive and physical decline where any joy would be overshadowed by the losses.
And yes, the possibility you mentioned indeed provides at least a little comfort.
If I am still around then, I‘d be happy to lend you a hand turning over stones, no matter how long it takes.
Lyrics that came to my mind (from Bruderschaft - Forever):
I will walk this ground forever and stand guard against your name. I will give all I can offer, I will shoulder all the blame. I am sentry to you now, all your hopes and all your dreams. I will hold you to the light, that’s what forever means.
I‘ve just read „Think Again“ from Adam Grant. If vaccine whisperers succeed in convincing lots of anti-vaxxers to eventually protect their children, their approach may generalize. Even more impressive is the case of Daryl Davis, an Afro-American musician, talking hundreds of KKK members out of their white supremacist worldview.
I am very afraid that the best even a superintelligent AI can come up with would be uncanny puppet versions of the people we cherished or rather completely new people with just some similiarities, more akin to clone siblings than to the original individuals. What I actually want is what was left over of his connectome, and that is, for all I know, gone forever. Unless some AI can extract it from thermodynamical noise - which does not seem all that likely to me.
This post is not about arguments in favor of or against cryonics. I would just like to share a particular emotional response of mine as the topic became hot for me after not thinking about it at all for nearly a decade.
Recently, I have signed up for cryonics, as has my wife, and we have made arrangements for our son to be cryopreserved just in case longevity research does not deliver in time or some unfortunate thing happens.
Last year, my father died. He was a wonderful man, good-natured, intelligent, funny, caring and, most importantly in this context, loving life to the fullest, even in the light of any hardships. He had a no-bullshit-approach... (read 444 more words →)
I could not really make sense of your comment, though I had actually done what you proposed a couple of years ago, until I had read Lucius Bushnaq‘s comment. Did that imply what you were trying to tell me or is there another aspect to what you call an intuitive understanding?
I cannot see how your last sentence holds. My subjective experience of time was, up to now, everything from the usual feeling of continuous time and total disarray during psychosis up to a feeling of complete timeless eternity during transcendental meditation. Instead if knowing how time feels like - I have had my share - I would like to understand how consciousness relates to time in the light of physics. Subjective experience can be deceiving in infinitely many ways, but there must be (at least I hope so) some objective underlying physical foundation for it. At least my inclination towards realism tells me that.
This question may be either trivial to answer and I just don‘t get it, or it may be highly controversial. I am trying to pose my problem as shortly as I can.
What is responsible for my subjective experience of the present moment (or rather, the immediate past, taking information processing into account)? Why is now actually now?
Under the premise of spacetime being a static and eternal thing, doesn‘t any line of thought trying to answer this question necessarily make any intuitive notions of identity and the passing of time illusionary?
The only answer that I can come up with is that every conscious moment exists, despite any causal connections, for itself in some eternal sense.... (read more)
This may be a bad idea that acted upon may do more harm than good, but I propose that we should find a way to induce a controlled and stable state of hypomania in people who are willing to enhance their functional capabilities.
Hypomania is a state that frequently occurs in people with bipolar disorder, which in various variants affects up to 3% of the population. In contrast to full-blown mania, characterized by delusions, mind racing and intense euphoria and/or dysphoria, hypomania does not incapacitate a person on the individual or social level. Instead, creative thinking and cognition as well as overall energy level are considerably enhanced, while the need for sleep and rest... (read 350 more words →)
Long story short, my doc and me tried methylphenidate despite my bipolar disorder. I can‘t remember ever having had such an inner calm and structured motivation. I seem to be in some weird niche of the ADHD space. Let‘s see how this proceeds, I am fairly optimistic that I am able to perform better according to my self-expectations now.