You haven’t been talking about your personal preferences. You’ve been talking about what should be banned, made illegal. Moreover, you’ve been calling people who don’t share your preferences mentally ill.
different QoL cutoff
QoL has no cutoffs (other than death) -- it’s a continuous variable.
So are you claiming that QoL and lifetime are equally important?
No, I’m claiming they’re both important but not necessarily equally. Moreover, if you could make an indifference graph (put life length of the X axis, put QoL on the Y axis, plot points for different x and y such that you are indifferent between the combinations, connect the points) I doubt the lines would be straight.
it’s basically the same thing as living a long life ?
No, it’s not the same thing. Besides, there are limits on how high could you get the QoL peak—you just can’t jam a year’s worth of pleasures into a single day.
If lifetime is more important than QoL why not just optimize for lifetime?
Because when multiple things are important, trying to optimize for only one of them rarely leads to good outcomes.
as you get closer to death your balance would move more and more towards lifetime
I don’t see that as obvious. Look at e.g. euthanasia debates. Some people do trade most of their QoL for additional minutes of life, others do not.
So in that sense the future you is mad at the present you for having put too much weight on QoL
Nope, not true. Willing to sacrifice QoL for longer life in the old age does not mean you necessarily regret what you did when you’re young.
Nope, not true. Willing to sacrifice QoL for longer life in the old age does not mean you necessarily regret what you did when you’re young.
How so? The future you wants to live longer and he/she would have been able to do so if he/she renounced to some QoL in the past , the future you can’t live in good memories of past enjoyed QoL , he/she needs time.
You are confusing choosing more life at the cost of reduced QoL in that future life with wishing for a longer life and being willing to sacrifice QoL in the past.
This would be true if you didn’t know what would your preference be in the future ; but you know that , you know that as you’d be getting closer and closer to death you’d be willing to sacrifice more QoL than you’re willing to sacrifice now , so why not making a sacrifice now and give to the future you more minutes and less regrets?
This would be true if you didn’t know what would your preference be in the future
Guess what, you do NOT know your preferences in the future. Things change.
Also, I’m not sure what does “as you’d be getting closer and closer to death you’d be willing to sacrifice more QoL” mean. Let’s say I have a choice between dying in the near future and undergoing some treatment which will leave me in permanent pain for the rest of my life. Let’s say I choose the treatment—that’s a clear “sacrifice QoL for longevity” trade-off—but I don’t see why it would matter whether I’m 20 at the time (presumably far away from death) or 80 (presumably close to death anyway). In fact, I suspect that more 80-year-old will refuse the treatment than 20-year-olds.
but I don’t see why it would matter whether I’m 20 at the time (presumably far away from death) or 80 (presumably close to death anyway)
Again , everything has a cost
You won’t have any money to pay for your treatment at 80 if you squandered it all partying (QoL) at 20 , people do that all the time , they give up QoL in the present in order to be able to afford medical treatments (lifetime extension) in the future...it’s called retirement planning
You seem to like attacking a strawman where any resources you have you spend immediately on pleasure. I don’t know of anyone who suggests this is a good idea. Nothing I said implies that retirement planning is unnecessary.
Everything has a cost but sometimes the cost is worth paying. If you’re optimizing for total pleasure/consumption/etc. over your lifetime then if you’re 20 you expect to have 50-70 years ahead of you and you would plan to spend your existing and expected-in-the-future resources over this whole time.
By the way, are you practicing caloric restriction? It’s the only life prolong treatment which has been shown to work consistently. Most people don’t do it because you lead a pretty miserable life, but that doesn’t seem to be a problem for you..?
Everything has a cost but sometimes the cost is worth paying. If you’re optimizing for total pleasure/consumption/etc. over your lifetime then if you’re 20 you expect to have 50-70 years ahead of you and you would plan to spend your existing and expected-in-the-future resources over this whole time.
And I perfectly agree with that , my only claim is that if society were to put more weight on longevity and less on QoL we’d reach an optimal balance by not having to renounce to anything important plus we’d not have any regrets later on
Ok so back to the question I asked you above...shouldn’t people like me get some sort of compensation for the months , possibly years lost because society interprets “optimal” and “important” in a different way?
shouldn’t people like me get some sort of compensation for the months , possibly years lost because society interprets “optimal” and “important” in a different way?
If you claim a right to compensation, there must be a matching duty on the part of someone. Who has the duty to compensate you and why?
Oh, and let’s flip the question, too. Shouldn’t other people get some sort of compensation from you because you interpret “optimal” and “important” in a different way?
You haven’t been talking about your personal preferences. You’ve been talking about what should be banned, made illegal. Moreover, you’ve been calling people who don’t share your preferences mentally ill.
QoL has no cutoffs (other than death) -- it’s a continuous variable.
No, I’m claiming they’re both important but not necessarily equally. Moreover, if you could make an indifference graph (put life length of the X axis, put QoL on the Y axis, plot points for different x and y such that you are indifferent between the combinations, connect the points) I doubt the lines would be straight.
No, it’s not the same thing. Besides, there are limits on how high could you get the QoL peak—you just can’t jam a year’s worth of pleasures into a single day.
Because when multiple things are important, trying to optimize for only one of them rarely leads to good outcomes.
I don’t see that as obvious. Look at e.g. euthanasia debates. Some people do trade most of their QoL for additional minutes of life, others do not.
Nope, not true. Willing to sacrifice QoL for longer life in the old age does not mean you necessarily regret what you did when you’re young.
How so? The future you wants to live longer and he/she would have been able to do so if he/she renounced to some QoL in the past , the future you can’t live in good memories of past enjoyed QoL , he/she needs time.
You are confusing choosing more life at the cost of reduced QoL in that future life with wishing for a longer life and being willing to sacrifice QoL in the past.
This would be true if you didn’t know what would your preference be in the future ; but you know that , you know that as you’d be getting closer and closer to death you’d be willing to sacrifice more QoL than you’re willing to sacrifice now , so why not making a sacrifice now and give to the future you more minutes and less regrets?
Guess what, you do NOT know your preferences in the future. Things change.
Also, I’m not sure what does “as you’d be getting closer and closer to death you’d be willing to sacrifice more QoL” mean. Let’s say I have a choice between dying in the near future and undergoing some treatment which will leave me in permanent pain for the rest of my life. Let’s say I choose the treatment—that’s a clear “sacrifice QoL for longevity” trade-off—but I don’t see why it would matter whether I’m 20 at the time (presumably far away from death) or 80 (presumably close to death anyway). In fact, I suspect that more 80-year-old will refuse the treatment than 20-year-olds.
Again , everything has a cost
You won’t have any money to pay for your treatment at 80 if you squandered it all partying (QoL) at 20 , people do that all the time , they give up QoL in the present in order to be able to afford medical treatments (lifetime extension) in the future...it’s called retirement planning
You seem to like attacking a strawman where any resources you have you spend immediately on pleasure. I don’t know of anyone who suggests this is a good idea. Nothing I said implies that retirement planning is unnecessary.
Everything has a cost but sometimes the cost is worth paying. If you’re optimizing for total pleasure/consumption/etc. over your lifetime then if you’re 20 you expect to have 50-70 years ahead of you and you would plan to spend your existing and expected-in-the-future resources over this whole time.
By the way, are you practicing caloric restriction? It’s the only life prolong treatment which has been shown to work consistently. Most people don’t do it because you lead a pretty miserable life, but that doesn’t seem to be a problem for you..?
And I perfectly agree with that , my only claim is that if society were to put more weight on longevity and less on QoL we’d reach an optimal balance by not having to renounce to anything important plus we’d not have any regrets later on
Different people will interpret “optimal” and “important” in very different ways. You should know this since you offer a minority viewpoint.
Ok so back to the question I asked you above...shouldn’t people like me get some sort of compensation for the months , possibly years lost because society interprets “optimal” and “important” in a different way?
If you claim a right to compensation, there must be a matching duty on the part of someone. Who has the duty to compensate you and why?
Oh, and let’s flip the question, too. Shouldn’t other people get some sort of compensation from you because you interpret “optimal” and “important” in a different way?