[extropy-chat] the question of self-termination

[Eliezer Yudkowsky]

Damien Broderick wrote:
> At 04:58 PM 11/19/2004 -0500, Eliezer wrote:
> 
>> I had come, even before this point, to the conclusion that death is 
>> the worst thing in the world because it can never be repaired, never 
>> be made up for afterward.  Philosophical angst seems to me a lesser 
>> problem than death.
> 
> Angst in one form or another, including intolerable suffering, is surely
> the *cause* of many suicides, and we need to address it *as a 
> community*, as thinking and feeling and caring persons.... as 
> philosophers of the real.

Great.  You do that.

Sorry, Damien, but you know my feelings about "we need to".

"Beware `we should...', extend a hand to `how do I...'"
	- http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=22799&cid=2452675

"Susan was bright enough to know that the phrase 'Someone ought to do 
something' was not, by itself, a helpful one.  People who used it never 
added the rider 'and that someone is me.'  But someone ought to do 
something, and right now the whole pool of someones consisted of her, and 
no one else."
	-- Terry Pratchett, "Hogfather"

-- 
Eliezer S. Yudkowsky                          http://singinst.org/
Research Fellow, Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence