From: Ben Goertzel (ben@goertzel.org)
Date: Wed May 30 2001 - 05:21:03 MDT
> >It was my fear of death that got me signed up for cryonics
> >and onto a life-extension diet.
>
> Whatever it takes :-) It's possible that from a logical
> standpoint it might have occurred to you that it was better
> to be alive than to be dead, but I know that almost everyone
> finds that really hard to swallow as a general principle.
This reply strikes me as very peculiar.
Once a criterion for "better-ness" has been given, logic can be used to help
determine how best to satisfy this criterion
However, logic does not tell you what "better" means
So, there is no way to logically demonstrate that X is better than Y without
beginning from a (non-logically provided) definition of "better"
If your criterion is "maximize the happiness of X as an individual organism"
then of course keeping X alive is usually better than letting X die, unless
X is generally more unhappy than happy.
If the criterion is "maximize the survival of my DNA" then death of the
individual may be the best choice, if the individual is significantly less
able than his offpring (e.g. less than 50% as able as one of his
children)...
Having made that nitpick, though, I basically agree with the sentiment
underlying it.
Personally, I badly DO want to live forever, and this derives NOT from a
fear of death, but from my goals of
-- personal survival
-- creation of interesting ideas and structures (I'm good at this, I'd like
to see my work continue)
-- survival of my children and my friends (which I can be helpful with, so
long as I'm not allowed to degrade
too badly)
I don't want to die, but my lifelong passion for life extension really
doesn't come from a huge fear of death. Of course I'm afraid of dying, but,
if it comes down to it that dying happens, I'm certainly able to deal with
it calmly ... my individual consciousness is not *that* important in the
grand scheme of things. It's worth a lot to me to maintain my individual
consciousness for a long time, but as Mick Jagger says "You can't always get
what you want" ...
ben
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