X-Message-Number: 28083
From: 
Date: Thu, 22 Jun 2006 14:10:29 EDT
Subject: Enlightened Self Interest

Content-Language: en

 
As far as I know, no one has ever proposed a comprehensible or rational  

basis for conscious choices, except    enlightened    self interest. Even this 
label  
is so murky that both its advocates (including myself--Youniverse) and 
detractors have made  significant impression only on small minorities. 

However, gaining momentum in cryonics has so far always depended on  nudging 
small numbers of people in the right direction. Political and  philosophical 
discussions on Cryonet are appropriate if they plausibly tend to  motivate 
individual decisions for cryopreservation. 
The idea that 200 extremely rich people constitute a drag on humanity  (read 
you) is so ludicrous as to  boggle the mind, as others have recently pointed 
out, but the issue is just  possibly worth highlighting again for its possible 
value in improving allocation  of personal resources. 

First of all, extremely rich people don   t really    own    or    consume    
very  

much, or divert much resources in a bad direction. They can   t eat a thousand
quarts of caviar or live in a thousand rooms or sit on a thousand couches or  
shtup a thousand women (or men, as the case may be). Even in their personal  

spending, a large part ends up in the pockets of their suppliers and employees
and in government coffers through taxation. (Confiscating their holdings would 
 drastically reduce tax revenue.) In modern times we have never seen anything 
 remotely like the criminal waste of the ancient Egyptians who built the  
pyramids. 
Primarily, the very rich only manage or direct the affairs of their  

companies, which someone would do anyway, in much the same way, if the very rich
were 
sent to the guillotine or taxed into penury. 
The biggest    owner    class might plausibly be called the legislators and  
regulators. These may or may not have visibly lavish life styles or large     

personal    incomes, but they have the bulk of the power and perks, which they  
can 
almost uniquely wield without restraint other than their ability to con or  
bribe some of the voters.  
Others who aren   t usually very rich but constitute largely selfish and  

partly unaccountable power blocs include most unions, or their management. And

unions    might include trade associations and professional associations such as
those of lawyers and physicians. 
The main difference between an entrepreneur and a legislator or regulator  is 
that, by and large, only the former is held to objective standards of  

performance. And only the latter routinely declare victory after an obvious  
defeat. 
The Libertarians think that almost all legislation and regulation is  
counterproductive and immoral. In previous and present circumstances, this is  
certainly going too far, but their ideas have a germ of truth. 
In deciding which choices are most likely to benefit your future self,  there 
are not only unresolved biological/philosophical questions, but nearly  

intractable practical problems at present. But you have to make choices, unless
you allow some demented collective to make them for you. 
Life is the condition precedent for liberty and the pursuit of happiness.  If 
you don   t have life, you will have nothing. There are things worse than  

nothing or oblivion, and if you anticipate a preponderance of these you should
jump into the black hole. Otherwise, as first priority, one should strive to  
stay alive, even if that entails actual study and work and struggle..  
Robert Ettinger 



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