A more optimistic take on the (very interesting) cryonics vs. SIAI debate is that, since Ms. Hilton has proven herself open to cryonics, she may be more open than most celebrities to sponsoring and advocating low-visibility, high-impact charities. Her money could do a lot of good and her fame could generate a lot more money for SIAI/Lifeboat/CRN/.… OTOH, as long as she’s considered stupid, her support could be bad PR for a fringe-sounding organization that wants to be taken seriously in public policy. Anyway, she probably already gets $BIGNUM requests for charity every day.
I think most people (who aren’t trying to be more like expected utility maximizers) don’t trade off personal purchases against charitable contributions very much, so encouraging the average person to sign up for cryonics doesn’t seem very likely to detract from their donations. It could be just as likely to increase them by giving them a personal stake in existential risk issues.
It seems a little strange from a utilitarian perspective to focus on money spent on cryonics as money that could be better given to SIAI, as opposed to money spent on selfish purchases with lower expected return (probably including all luxuries), although I do see a good moral-aesthetic reason for it.
CI, not Alcor? That’s a little surprising.
A more optimistic take on the (very interesting) cryonics vs. SIAI debate is that, since Ms. Hilton has proven herself open to cryonics, she may be more open than most celebrities to sponsoring and advocating low-visibility, high-impact charities. Her money could do a lot of good and her fame could generate a lot more money for SIAI/Lifeboat/CRN/.… OTOH, as long as she’s considered stupid, her support could be bad PR for a fringe-sounding organization that wants to be taken seriously in public policy. Anyway, she probably already gets $BIGNUM requests for charity every day.
I think most people (who aren’t trying to be more like expected utility maximizers) don’t trade off personal purchases against charitable contributions very much, so encouraging the average person to sign up for cryonics doesn’t seem very likely to detract from their donations. It could be just as likely to increase them by giving them a personal stake in existential risk issues.
It seems a little strange from a utilitarian perspective to focus on money spent on cryonics as money that could be better given to SIAI, as opposed to money spent on selfish purchases with lower expected return (probably including all luxuries), although I do see a good moral-aesthetic reason for it.