[ExI] Max More - New CEO Alcor Life Extension Foundation

[Adrian Tymes]

On Mon, Dec 27, 2010 at 2:48 AM, Eugen Leitl <eugen at leitl.org> wrote:
> On Sun, Dec 26, 2010 at 03:04:20PM -0800, Adrian Tymes wrote:
>> TL,DR: "Waaah!  Society hasn't accepted cyronics yet so it never
>> will!"
>
> It doesn't sound like you've read it.

No, I did.  As I said, I stopped a bit before halfway through the first part,
but I read as far as I did.

>> This analysis does not seem credible.  Just to quote slide 31, it states
>
> Do you know who's the author?

Mike Darwin.  Even the experts can get tired and frustrated and make
mistakes.  That's why argument from authority is a fallacy - see
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argument_from_authority

As the author said, he was writing this one from an emotional perspective,
rather than the typical logical one.  That may be how he tripped up.  Keeping
a detached point of view, even on topics you care about a lot, lets you avoid
making the kind of mistakes that turned me away from this paper.

>> that cyronics:
>
> Your comments would be a lot more credible if you'd know
> how to spell cryonics.

Bah.  Typos happen.

> So you made it halfway through part I, latched up some random
> comments, and then kindly offered a tl;dr.
>
> Wall, yeah, Mike didn't write that for stupid people.

Yep.  And I know when something's not worth my further time.

I've seen these kinds of complaints before.  And it might have gotten better
past the point where I stopped reading.  (Certainly, the subject lines in the
rest of it - I skimmed once I stopped reading in detail - seemed promising.  If
Mike's problem was the emotions, that may well have petered out later on.)
There was nothing further for me to do about it - but I did identify
it as a useful
resource for Max, either way.  I look forward to seeing his review.

>> should read this, though, as practice for the kind of arguments he's
>> going to have to debunk repeatedly.
>
> You're a part of the problem, then.

Other people speaking truth to power can be a problem for some of those in
power, yes.  I call things like I see them.