Correction: not ‘you’, me specifically. I’m young, phyisically and psychologically healthy, and rarely find myself in situations where my life is in danger (the most obvious danger is of course car accidents). It should also be noted that I think a singularity is a lot nearer than your average singularitarian, and think the chance of me dying a non-accidental/non-gory death is really low.
I’m afraid that ‘this discussion’ is not the one I originally intended with this post: do you think it is best to have it here? I’m afraid that people are reading my post as taking a side (perhaps due to a poor title choice) when in fact it is making a comment about the unfortunate certainty people seem to consistently have on both sides of the issue. (Edit: Of course, this post does not present arguments for both sides, but simply attempts to balance the overall debate in a more fair direction.)
Should we nominate a victim to write a post summarizing various good points either for or against signing up for cryonics (not the feasibility of cryonics technologies!) while taking care to realize that preferences vary and various arguments have different weights dependent on subjective interpretations? I would love to nominate Steve Rayhawk because it seems right up his ally but I’m afraid he wouldn’t like to be spotlighted. I would like to nominate Steven Kaas if he was willing. (Carl Shulman also comes to mind but I suspect he’s much too busy.)
(edit) I guess I don’t fully understand how the proposed post would differ from this one (doesn’t it already cover some of the “good points against” part?), and I’ve also always come down on the “no” side more than most people here.
I think I missed some decent points against (one of which is yours) and the ‘good arguments for’ do not seem to have been collected in a coherent fashion. If they were in the same post, written by the same person, then there’s less of a chance that two arguments addressing the same point would talk past each other. I think that you wouldn’t have to suggest a conclusion, and could leave it completely open to debate. I’m willing to bet most people will trust you to unbiasedly and effectively put forth the arguments for both sides. (I mean, what with that great quote about reconstruction from corpses and all.)
Correction: not ‘you’, me specifically. I’m young, phyisically and psychologically healthy, and rarely find myself in situations where my life is in danger (the most obvious danger is of course car accidents). It should also be noted that I think a singularity is a lot nearer than your average singularitarian, and think the chance of me dying a non-accidental/non-gory death is really low.
I’m afraid that ‘this discussion’ is not the one I originally intended with this post: do you think it is best to have it here? I’m afraid that people are reading my post as taking a side (perhaps due to a poor title choice) when in fact it is making a comment about the unfortunate certainty people seem to consistently have on both sides of the issue. (Edit: Of course, this post does not present arguments for both sides, but simply attempts to balance the overall debate in a more fair direction.)
Indeed, perhaps not the best place to discuss. But it is worth thinking about this as it does make a difference to the point at issue.
Should we nominate a victim to write a post summarizing various good points either for or against signing up for cryonics (not the feasibility of cryonics technologies!) while taking care to realize that preferences vary and various arguments have different weights dependent on subjective interpretations? I would love to nominate Steve Rayhawk because it seems right up his ally but I’m afraid he wouldn’t like to be spotlighted. I would like to nominate Steven Kaas if he was willing. (Carl Shulman also comes to mind but I suspect he’s much too busy.)
(edit) I guess I don’t fully understand how the proposed post would differ from this one (doesn’t it already cover some of the “good points against” part?), and I’ve also always come down on the “no” side more than most people here.
I think I missed some decent points against (one of which is yours) and the ‘good arguments for’ do not seem to have been collected in a coherent fashion. If they were in the same post, written by the same person, then there’s less of a chance that two arguments addressing the same point would talk past each other. I think that you wouldn’t have to suggest a conclusion, and could leave it completely open to debate. I’m willing to bet most people will trust you to unbiasedly and effectively put forth the arguments for both sides. (I mean, what with that great quote about reconstruction from corpses and all.)