X-Message-Number: 7307 Date: Mon, 16 Dec 96 15:54:13 UT From: "Robert Ettinger" <> Subject: SCI. CRYONICS try again I imagine by now most readers have lost interest in my "values" notes and Thomas Donaldson's responses (last Cryonet # 7295). But (misguided?) stubbornness compels me to make yet another short effort to clarify my project. MOTIVATED behavior springs from only one source--the desire to feel good (or to feel better). Therefore individual values (wants or needs) depend on the physiology of feel-good, located primarily in the part(s) or aspect(s) of the brain that are responsible for feeling or subjectivity. Once we understand this (and to some extent even without this understanding), any rational individual life strategy, and particular choices, will be based on (explicit or implicit) use of probability theory aiming to maximize feel-good over future time. We do not yet know how (or whether) apparent conflicts between wants can be reconciled, or how the hierarchies are related, or how undue influence of mere habits can feasibly be modified. But we will learn--and even before that, as noted, most of us can greatly improve our strategies, just by examining them critically. None of this has any direct relation to Thomas' talk of "selection pressures" or the "drive to propagate our genome." The mechanics of speciation and socialization are interesting and useful, but entirely secondary. The only important thing for a rational person is to improve his own life. To do that effectively, one needs first to examine his own values, with a view to determining which may be false or inappropriately weighted, from the standpoint of maximizing long term enlightened self interest. Often we will find that certain attitudes or habits, although undesirable, cannot be easily or quickly modified without destroying the personality. We will often find that some apparent "sacrifices" are necessary for survival or for the integrity of the personality. Yet there is also the possibility, by successive iteration, of gradually using our present (derivative) values and our intelligence to modify those values and make them more rational, more in keeping with the basic value(s). But mere introspection and calculation, while useful, are insufficient; we also need more understanding, as I said, of the physiology of feel-good, of the mechanisms of subjectivity. This requires laboratory research as well as theoretical speculation--and fortunately, this has begun to happen, although not with the direct focus I would like to see. Robert Ettinger Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=7307