This is a problem we can fix with cryonics. Actually, hypothermic hibernation tech, or even a plain old anesthetic coma should suffice. There’s no reason anyone should be forced to stay awake in intense psychological pain while they await a cure.
(1) I can’t do PDFs, unfortunately, so could you explain what you mean here?
(2) I think Grognor is talking about people’s expectations of future utility. If these are positive enough, then it makes sense to endure present hardship (because by enduring it, the agent creates larger benefits on net—just in the future, that’s all). That is, as long as the future will be bright enough, people shouldn’t choose to die now. Such lives therefore suck, but less than death, right? And if such better-than-death lives are common, then that hardly supports “life sucks worse than death.”
Assuming away any externalities, why would “life sucks” (i.e., life is worse than average/ideal) be a reason to think life is worse than death?
Edit: I see now that my objection is the same as Normal Anomaly’s, at the end of the OP.
Because life with negative utility may be more common than we think (pdf warning.) Longer lifespans could even make this more pervasive if Grognor’s reasoning upthread is common.
This is a problem we can fix with cryonics. Actually, hypothermic hibernation tech, or even a plain old anesthetic coma should suffice. There’s no reason anyone should be forced to stay awake in intense psychological pain while they await a cure.
(1) I can’t do PDFs, unfortunately, so could you explain what you mean here? (2) I think Grognor is talking about people’s expectations of future utility. If these are positive enough, then it makes sense to endure present hardship (because by enduring it, the agent creates larger benefits on net—just in the future, that’s all). That is, as long as the future will be bright enough, people shouldn’t choose to die now. Such lives therefore suck, but less than death, right? And if such better-than-death lives are common, then that hardly supports “life sucks worse than death.”