[extropy-chat] Re: cryonics (was: Science and Fools)

[Damien Broderick]

At 10:49 PM 3/23/2005 +1100, Brett wrote:

>Would it be accurate to characterise your position then Damien as being
>that you could derive no further confidence in the rightness of your position
>on this issue from any third-party judging process so it would be pointless
>to explore the composition of such a judging process?

Precisely. I know Eugen and others are equally adamant that the contrary is 
true and self-evident, which I find incomprehensible. It keeps coming back 
to this: if someone persuades me that in a trillion years or so, random 
recurrence will generate an exact equivalent to me as I am at the moment, 
should I feel okay about someone blowing my head off right now? After all, 
"I'll" be alive again (or still alive, or something) in the remote future. 
Bullshit, sez I. Blow your own damn head off.

Given this assessment, how could *any* gathering of judges convince me 
otherwise?

This rejection is not necessarily to be conflated with a cryonics procedure 
that recovers me from vitrification, perhaps even by making cell-by-cell 
copies in situ. I do see the slippery slope here, which is why I'm not 
altogether persuaded of the merits of most cryonics-style programs. True, 
it will be wonderful for everyone *else* to have a copy of me around, :) 
but what's in it for *me*?

>PS: Congrats on the Award.

Thanks!

Damien Broderick