[extropy-chat] RISKS: hazard comparisons

[Robert J. Bradbury]

On Tue, 16 Mar 2004, Brett Paatsch wrote:

> I think I've confounded Robert's initial post by mixing in two things -
> two different sorts of risks -  the risks faced by all people (person-kind
> if you like) versus the risks one faces as an individual in a world of
> other people and politics - sorry about that.

Obviously this question is complex.  We each have 6-10 genetic defects
that are going to affect our own longevity.  Obviously it makes sense
to be in favor of research on those specific defects.  But then we
have to start to consider the risks our families and communities may
be exposed to.  Life isn't a lot of fun if the people to whom one
is closest get wiped out by anything from an asteroid to a virus.

My father's reason for rejecting cryonics was something to the effect
of "why would you want to go on living if everyone you ever cared about
was dead?" (his only brother and several close friends have already
died from various causes).  A reasonable argument IMO.

In classic analysis this tends to get evaluated in terms of YPLL
(Years of Potential Life Lost).  The problem is that YPLL may be
about to make a significant jump -- if so then most historic methods
of creating valuations on life may shift significantly.

So the equation becomes much more complex.  How does one evaluate
the aggregate worth of lives of people who want to push the envelope
as far as possible (at least 2000-7000 years) vs. those who are
really unhappy and who wished they had died yesterday?

So one gets into a discussion of the rights of people who would
do anything to prevent an asteroid from impacting the Earth to
those who would welcome it as a natural process of life.

I'd like to see the libertarian perspective with respect to knowing
that one cannot raise sufficient funds to prevent ones own extinction
(by developing the technology to divert an asteroid) without taxing
people who view that self-extinction is a perfectly natural process
within the universe (and who view life extension with a great deal
of abhorrence).

Robert