Oleander
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Oleander has not written any posts yet.
Oleander has not written any posts yet.
When visualizing it was actually easier to bend my arm.
I tried Unbendable Arm and it didn't work at all for me.
In 2020 at age 46 I was diagnosed with stage 4 prostate cancer with high volume bone metastases. Beyond SoC (6 rounds of docetaxel chemo and chemical castration (almost all prostate cancers require testosterone to grow)), I was offered participation in an immunotherapy clinical trial (Keynote 991). After considering it, I refused the trial. Previous immunotherapy trials had been unsuccessful and I didn't want to spend the next two years going to the hospital every three weeks.
Instead I read every study and article I could get my hands on that might be relevant. Thank you SciHub! I also radically changed my lifestyle. Healthy eating, daily walking and exercising. From my reading I... (read more)
I voted No, but I don't think there is anything wrong with pushing the button. The "gods-eye" view of utility is simply wrong (or incoherent) and it's what causes most of the utility paradoxes. No one experiences not existing after pressing the button, so no harm done.
[Edit] I should qualify that voting Yes on this question could potentially do harm. So if you're going to press the button, better to do it silently.
I have terminal cancer and have believed in AGI doom for much longer than I've know I have cancer. Neither of these things made me depressed. Perhaps that is because I'm pretty close to an existentialist.
I would also like to add that even if you're not making long-term investments (I'm certainly not), maintaining good health (as best you can) is always worthwhile because it directly leads to higher quality of life.
I'm not exactly in this position, but I think it is somewhat adjacent. I have stage 4 prostate cancer and after initial treatment (chemo + castration) decided to stop seeing my urologist for periodic checkups. I do regularly get my blood tested by a lab outside of our (European) healthcare system.
This was not exactly due to the establishment being "wrong", but a combination of factors:
I have stage IV cancer and personally vastly prefer death to being frozen. I'm frankly baffled by those who think cryopreservation is a good idea given the threat that unaligned AGI poses.
[edit to add:] BTW, this isn't rationalization. I've felt this way about cryopreservation for many years before I knew I had cancer.
Side note: vitamin D supplementation should not be used to replace sun exposure.
Strongly agree, but I don't think it is because vitamin D supplements aren't "real" vitamin D. It is very likely that sun exposure triggers other important processes.
Thanks for this article. I was diagnosed with metastatic prostate cancer last year. With the caveat that you've obviously spent more time than me on understanding the general conditions of cancers and that I'm in Europe, I'd still like to give my impressions. I think way too much money is spent on cancer drug research compared to fundamental research understanding the human body. Doctors and patients are way too eager to spend a lot of money for small amounts of improvement in overall survival. I think you are too optimistic about immunotherapy. I was offered to participate in a trial and looked into it and for PCa the record is abysmal. The side effects are also significant. I decided to decline the trial (which did feel a bit selfish.)
As someone living with stage 4 prostate cancer for five years now, I strongly endorse this.
I would add extra emphasis on quality of life. The past few years of my life have been amazing. I get regular blood tests, but that's it. I haven't seen or talked to a doctor for years. I found being in the medical system was only causing frustration (because they so obviously don't care) that I just decided to leave it and focus on living.