I’m glad you attached your bounty to a concrete action (cancelling your cryonics subscription) rather than something fuzzy like “convincing me to change my mind”. When someone offers a bounty for the latter I cynically expect them to use motivated cognition to explain away any evidence presented, and then refuse to pay out even if the evidence is very strong. (While you might still end up doing that here, the bounty is at least tied to an unambiguously defined action.)
Not really, because the sequence of events is “Change my mind”, then “Cancel subscription”, i.e. the latter hinges on the former. Hence, since “Change my mind” is a necessary prerequisite, the ambiguity remains.
When all is said & done, we may never know whether Chris Hallquist really did or really should have changed his mind. But, assuming Alcor/CI is willing to publicly disclose CH’s subscription status, we will be able to decide unambiguously whether he’s obliged to cough up $500.
Obviously a private enterprise won’t publicly disclose the subscription status of its members.
He can publicly state whatever he wants regarding whether he changed his mind or not, no matter what he actually did. He can publicly state whatever he wants regarding whether he actually cancelled his subscription, no matter what he actually did.
If you assume OP wouldn’t actually publicly lie (but still be subject to motivated cognition, as you said in the grandparent), then my previous comment is exactly right. You don’t avoid any motivated cognition by adding an action which is still contingent on the problematic “change your mind” part.
In the end, you’ll have to ask him “Well, did you change your mind?”, and whether he answers you “yes or no” versus “I cancelled my subscription” or “I did not cancel my subscription” comes out to the same thing.
When Alcor was fact checking my article titled Cryonics and the Singularity (page 21) for their magazine they said they needed some public source for everyone I listed as a member of Alcor. They made me delete reference to one member because my only source was that he had told me of his membership (and had given me permission to disclose it).
Obviously a private enterprise won’t publicly disclose the subscription status of its members.
Not so obvious to me. CH could write to Alcor/CI explaining what he’s done, and tell them he’s happy for them to disclose his subscription status for the purpose of verification. (Even if they weren’t willing to follow through on that, CH could write a letter asking them to confirm in writing that he’s no longer a member, and then post a copy of the response. CH might conceivably fake such a written confirmation, but I find it very unlikely that CH would put words in someone else’s mouth over their faked signature to save $500.)
I’m glad you attached your bounty to a concrete action (cancelling your cryonics subscription) rather than something fuzzy like “convincing me to change my mind”. When someone offers a bounty for the latter I cynically expect them to use motivated cognition to explain away any evidence presented, and then refuse to pay out even if the evidence is very strong. (While you might still end up doing that here, the bounty is at least tied to an unambiguously defined action.)
Not really, because the sequence of events is “Change my mind”, then “Cancel subscription”, i.e. the latter hinges on the former. Hence, since “Change my mind” is a necessary prerequisite, the ambiguity remains.
When all is said & done, we may never know whether Chris Hallquist really did or really should have changed his mind. But, assuming Alcor/CI is willing to publicly disclose CH’s subscription status, we will be able to decide unambiguously whether he’s obliged to cough up $500.
Obviously a private enterprise won’t publicly disclose the subscription status of its members.
He can publicly state whatever he wants regarding whether he changed his mind or not, no matter what he actually did. He can publicly state whatever he wants regarding whether he actually cancelled his subscription, no matter what he actually did.
If you assume OP wouldn’t actually publicly lie (but still be subject to motivated cognition, as you said in the grandparent), then my previous comment is exactly right. You don’t avoid any motivated cognition by adding an action which is still contingent on the problematic “change your mind” part.
In the end, you’ll have to ask him “Well, did you change your mind?”, and whether he answers you “yes or no” versus “I cancelled my subscription” or “I did not cancel my subscription” comes out to the same thing.
When Alcor was fact checking my article titled Cryonics and the Singularity (page 21) for their magazine they said they needed some public source for everyone I listed as a member of Alcor. They made me delete reference to one member because my only source was that he had told me of his membership (and had given me permission to disclose it).
Good article, you should repost it as a discussion topic or in the open thread.
Not so obvious to me. CH could write to Alcor/CI explaining what he’s done, and tell them he’s happy for them to disclose his subscription status for the purpose of verification. (Even if they weren’t willing to follow through on that, CH could write a letter asking them to confirm in writing that he’s no longer a member, and then post a copy of the response. CH might conceivably fake such a written confirmation, but I find it very unlikely that CH would put words in someone else’s mouth over their faked signature to save $500.)