The difference between cryonics and, for example, global warming denialism is that the former makes a claim like “it is probably a good thing to do X”, while the latter makes a claim like “X is/is not true”. These are completely different things!
Perhaps it is better to compare it to the anti vaccine movement. They do make a claim of the form “X is good/bad for you”. Now the difference becomes about evidence. For cryonics there is little evidence either way: it has never worked, and it has never not-worked. In such a case there is little we can do beyond trying to use reason alone (always a dangerous thing) and waiting for more experiments.
On the other hand, there is a lot of evidence that vaccines work just fine. Denying that evidence is wrong.
Because the less evidence there is, the better the chance that we’re mistaken about it, all else equal. But this seems obvious enough that I guess I’m missing your point.
Sure, the weaker the evidence, the less you’ll be misled on average by ignoring it. But there doesn’t come a point where ignoring evidence is not misleading at all compared to updating on it. It’s never going to be a good idea to start saying to yourself “that’s only a little bit of evidence, so I’ll just pretend it wasn’t there”.
The difference between cryonics and, for example, global warming denialism is that the former makes a claim like “it is probably a good thing to do X”, while the latter makes a claim like “X is/is not true”. These are completely different things!
Perhaps it is better to compare it to the anti vaccine movement. They do make a claim of the form “X is good/bad for you”. Now the difference becomes about evidence. For cryonics there is little evidence either way: it has never worked, and it has never not-worked. In such a case there is little we can do beyond trying to use reason alone (always a dangerous thing) and waiting for more experiments.
On the other hand, there is a lot of evidence that vaccines work just fine. Denying that evidence is wrong.
Your definition of evidence is too narrow.
Why is it a sin to deny a lot of evidence, but not a little evidence?
Because the less evidence there is, the better the chance that we’re mistaken about it, all else equal. But this seems obvious enough that I guess I’m missing your point.
Sure, the weaker the evidence, the less you’ll be misled on average by ignoring it. But there doesn’t come a point where ignoring evidence is not misleading at all compared to updating on it. It’s never going to be a good idea to start saying to yourself “that’s only a little bit of evidence, so I’ll just pretend it wasn’t there”.
If updating were costless, I’d agree.