X-Message-Number: 8835
Date: Sun, 23 Nov 1997 09:59:24 -0800
From: Tim Freeman <>
Subject: Hubris (was Re: CryoNet #8801 - #8806)

From: Marty Nemko <>
>Here's a rather graphic presentation of this objection:  "It's hubristic 
>of you to think that your life is so damned valuable that you're willing 
>to spend so much money that could be so much better spent than on a 
>long-shot that you've be revived.  Even if you do get revived, your 
>brain will probably be fried and/or you'll be in pain and/or they'll 
>make you a slave or put you in a zoo.  All when you could simply have 
>donated the money to a good charity that would guarantee that people who 
>are starving could get something to eat."  Anyone care to try to counter 
>that objection?

Response #1: Rhetorical.  "The cost of cryonics is about equal to
ordering a pizza or two per week.  If you have eliminated all
frivolous expenses of that size or larger from your life and diverted
the money saved toward charity for starving people, then you can make
that criticism of me without being a hypocrite.  Have you?"  (Steve
Farmer of sci.life-extension answered this with a "yes".  He claims to
be a socialist college instructor of some kind and he claims to live
consistently with his beliefs.)

Response #2: Direct. "I believe that redistributing my wealth toward
others does not help the world much.  Starvation in third-world
countries is created by local politics, and much proverty in
first-world countries is generated by very different politics, and
redistributing my money toward the starving people isn't going to
change that.  A person is a very valuable asset in anything resembling
a sane labor market; if it were easy to save people from these
difficult situations, you'd see people starting businesses that rescue
starving people in exchange for an indentured servitude of, say, 10
years or so.  This doesn't happen.  I wish it did; then I could help
people by investing in these rescue schemes."

Response #3: Raising a larger issue.  "Yes, there are starving people.
You're missing the big picture, though -- there are more aging people
who are going to be dying a slow miserable unpreventable death
sometime in the next hundred years.  This is the central problem of
human existence.  Cryonics is an attempt to deal with that.  There are
other attempts that are also worth paying attention to."

Response #4: Telling them to fuck off, politely. "Guilty as charged.
Next question?"  (This response assumes that people who want to tell
me how to spend my money aren't worth talking to.)
-- 
Tim Freeman       
            http://www.infoscreen.com/resume.html
Web-centered Java and Perl programming in Silicon Valley or offsite

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