Aubrey de Grey video

[gusl]

This 15-minute video is a very nice introduction to Aubrey de Grey and his ideas (in one sentence: "we can and should cure aging").

He briefly explains people's negative reactions to this as being due to a kind of rational irrationality ("rational denial"). If x is horrible, and x is inevitable, then it is perfectly rational for one to keep x out of one's mind.

The philosopher in me wants to ask: at which meta-level should one try to be rational? or, obfuscated: at which meta-level is it rational for one to try to be rational? Circles, circles...

Comments

[selfishgene.livejournal.com]

The level that ensures your survival.

[(Anonymous)]

survival = happiness?

[selfishgene.livejournal.com]

Can you be happy after you're dead? Survival is logically prior to every other fucking thing whatsoever. It's a testament to the sloppiness of (most) philosophers that this obvious point even has to be mentioned.
Modern philosophy is the descendant of religious scholasticism (intellectual wankfest) and it shows.

[(Anonymous)]

so you would rather live long and miserably, than short and happily?

[selfishgene.livejournal.com]

If there was some deity offering that choice, from a position of omniscience and omnipotence, then that question would mean something. In the real world; we always act for our perceived interests in an environment of uncertainty. We pursue happiness, while trading off possible benefits against risk. We may have different levels of risk-aversion and time-preference but they vary within a narrow range.

[gustavolacerda.livejournal.com]

This is a real choice you have today. You could indulge in smoking, drugs and unsafe sex and then commit painless suicide before having to suffer the consequences.

[selfishgene.livejournal.com]

What if the time for suicide comes, and it turns out you would rather watch your penis rot off then kill yourself?

[selfishgene.livejournal.com]

'... than kill yourself'. Typo.

[gustavolacerda.livejournal.com]

Utility theory is far from a perfect description of human behaviour:

* People behave as if their future selves weren't themselves. They are not completely wrong here.
* Should I maximize enjoyment or minimize regret? Ideally, regret shouldn't hurt any more than necessary to teach me correct behaviour for the future, but in some people, it really hurts unnecessarily much (this is irrational). Such people would rationally choose to do the latter.

How should one behave today? I try not to judge others' answers to this question, but I try to answer this for myself: I am a prescriptivist about methodology, and feel a need to figure out what the right thing to do is... even if the prescription ends up being that I should forget all this philosophizing and enjoy life spontaneous manner. In fact, I'm pretty sure that this is what I should do to a large extent.

[gustavolacerda.livejournal.com]

how do you feel (think?) about euthanasia?

[selfishgene.livejournal.com]

Euthanasia is reasonable if you are in severe pain with no feasible relief. I don't wish to criticize the choices of other people in this matter. I'm merely stating my opinion.

[peamasii.livejournal.com]

We're self-destructive as a race, but individually we may be motivated to live longer than others. That guy's beard is better than Rasputin's though.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_greg/]

Lots of dimensions in this thread!

If we live until the singularity all models that we can make now are unlikely to apply.

The biggest key to living a long life is to live fully in the now.

If I let go of the illusion of continuity of identity, then I can take a position of stewardship towards my body. I find that such a position makes me less stressed and more responsible than a position of self-ownership. I am also motivated to be generous towards my successors.

It has only been since I learned to like myself and people like myself that I've had a basis for making good choices in this arena.