[ExI] Arthur C. Clarke dies

[Eliezer S. Yudkowsky]

Damien Broderick wrote:
> At 06:19 PM 3/18/2008 -0500, BB wrote:
> 
>> I am trying to figure out why Clarke
>> didn't do cryonics.
> 
> He told me it was in part because so many of his friends were dead, 
> and he couldn't bear the idea of going on without them. He was 
> tremendously upset when his dog died some years ago.

Give me a god-damned break.  I suppose *he* didn't have any friends 
who might be sad when he was gone?  Like half the science-fiction 
community?  You've got to draw a line in time, somewhere.  He didn't 
want to visit the Moon someday?  And why didn't he have CI freeze his 
dog, if he cared that much?

 From a recent AGI conference:

Person:  "Oh, I've often thought about signing up for cryonics, but I 
haven't gotten around to it yet."

Me:  "If you have an accident before you get around to it, it will be 
death by stupidity."

Person (pauses):  "Good point."

I think that as long as not signing up for cryonics for stupid reasons 
remains socially acceptable, people are going to go on not signing up 
for cryonics for stupid reasons.  Only when they realize that everyone 
else is going to look at them like they're an idiot, will it occur to 
them that they might be doing something idiotic.

What we need around here is more peer pressure.  Friends don't let 
friends die.

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