Yeah maybe I am putting myself into Grant’s shoes a bit too much. Modifying your own algorithm is a bit like messing with system files on Linux/Windows.
“What can possibly go wrong if I just chmod the System files to 777 so that I have full access to all of them?”
…
computer dies horribly
I suspect that most people who are in the rational-o-sphere would be super cautious too, but perhaps one could build Grant’s presingularity life up a bit. Maybe he won the lottery and decided to outright buy cryo at an older age, for example? Maybe he doesn’t have all that rational-o-sphere knowledge?
So, this is non-canon, but I pictured Grant as black, partially self-taught, middle manager career, some nerdish hobbies but many not, and overconfident in his own abilities. He chose cryogenics, because his overconfidence overrode his absurdity heuristic. But as I said, this is non-canon and subject to change if I ever flesh him out more.
Interesting, I’d like to think/talk more about how different types of people might get into Cryonics, and how they might do on the other side.
One expectation I have is that the people who tend to self-select into cryo are probably the people with the most to gain from it.
I think that the binding constraint on how good paradise can be is the constraint of how much you can modify yourself and still realistically say that it is you. If you are a fairly average person from today with simple tastes and interests, there perhaps not much room for you to grow and still be “you”.
If you have more exotic tastes and more sophisticated ambitions, you have more room to grow. The more frustrated and stifled you feel by contemporary society, the more you’ll benefit from having all those constraints lifted. Dream big.
I suspect that a few people will end up as celebrities for exploring interesting areas of mindspace, and they may spark various fashions among people who would not have expected to change much.
Yeah maybe I am putting myself into Grant’s shoes a bit too much. Modifying your own algorithm is a bit like messing with system files on Linux/Windows.
…
I suspect that most people who are in the rational-o-sphere would be super cautious too, but perhaps one could build Grant’s presingularity life up a bit. Maybe he won the lottery and decided to outright buy cryo at an older age, for example? Maybe he doesn’t have all that rational-o-sphere knowledge?
So, this is non-canon, but I pictured Grant as black, partially self-taught, middle manager career, some nerdish hobbies but many not, and overconfident in his own abilities. He chose cryogenics, because his overconfidence overrode his absurdity heuristic. But as I said, this is non-canon and subject to change if I ever flesh him out more.
Interesting, I’d like to think/talk more about how different types of people might get into Cryonics, and how they might do on the other side.
One expectation I have is that the people who tend to self-select into cryo are probably the people with the most to gain from it.
I think that the binding constraint on how good paradise can be is the constraint of how much you can modify yourself and still realistically say that it is you. If you are a fairly average person from today with simple tastes and interests, there perhaps not much room for you to grow and still be “you”.
If you have more exotic tastes and more sophisticated ambitions, you have more room to grow. The more frustrated and stifled you feel by contemporary society, the more you’ll benefit from having all those constraints lifted. Dream big.
I suspect that a few people will end up as celebrities for exploring interesting areas of mindspace, and they may spark various fashions among people who would not have expected to change much.