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#1
05-16-2007, 07:39 AM
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Modern Pascal\'s Wager adaptation: For real.
If science continues to progress exponentially, there will certainly come a time where people no longer have to die of natural causes. Science as of today can extend people's lives, and will continue to be able to extend them as it progresses. It's definitely a possibility that if science manages to progress faster than people deteriorate, people's lives can be extended long enough to reach point X (where death by natural causes can be avoided).
Now assume that living forever will result in infinite gain. (not necessarily so, but at least there's a significant chance of this, whereas there probably isn't a significant chance that it will result in infinite loss, as you can just kill yourself anytime you want) You see where I'm going. There's a slim chance that you have an infinite gain, out of a finite loss, so you should (rationally) put all your efforts towards this objective. As I see it, this objective needs 2 things: 1) That you stay alive long enough. and 2) That science progresses fast enough. So you should put all your efforts towards maximizing your health, minimizing your chances of dying and making world science progress as fast as possible. Then again, we're not wholly rational beings, so I can understand that many of us (myself included), after being presented with this argument and finding it correct, still don't dedicate their whole lives to this end. Anyway, if you find a hole in this argument please report it. 
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#3
05-16-2007, 09:17 AM
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Re: Modern Pascal\'s Wager adaptation: For real.
"If science continues to progress exponentially, there will certainly come a time where people no longer have to die of natural causes."
What makes you so certain?
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#4
05-16-2007, 09:30 AM
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Re: Modern Pascal\'s Wager adaptation: For real.
[ QUOTE ]
"If science continues to progress exponentially, there will certainly come a time where people no longer have to die of natural causes." What makes you so certain? [/ QUOTE ] Exactly... Have you heard of asymptotes?
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#5
05-16-2007, 09:57 AM
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Re: Modern Pascal\'s Wager adaptation: For real.
[ QUOTE ]
Anyway, if you find a hole in this argument please report it. [/ QUOTE ] It would be irrational for me, personally, to devote all my resources to this objective. Same reason why it's irrational for me to vote.
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#6
05-16-2007, 10:04 AM
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Re: Modern Pascal\'s Wager adaptation: For real.
[ QUOTE ]
"If science continues to progress exponentially, there will certainly come a time where people no longer have to die of natural causes." What makes you so certain? [/ QUOTE ] Ok, maybe it's not 100% certain. Still, we don't need it to be. Oh by the way, I wanted to add: You don't need to dedicate your whole life to this end to make it worthwhile. Every bit of dedication towards this goal is giving you an infinitely positive expected value. The more the better, that's all.
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#7
05-16-2007, 10:09 AM
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Re: Modern Pascal\'s Wager adaptation: For real.
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ] Anyway, if you find a hole in this argument please report it. [/ QUOTE ] It would be irrational for me, personally, to devote all my resources to this objective. Same reason why it's irrational for me to vote. [/ QUOTE ] Care to elaborate? By the way, if you're going to say something like "I don't wanna live forever", then it's irrelevant to this issue.
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#8
05-16-2007, 10:12 AM
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Re: Modern Pascal\'s Wager adaptation: For real.
The argument falls down because the person I will become in 10000 years time is not me. I gain nothing though I probably would thank the person I used to be.
The god version fails for other reasons but otherwise would work because of the soul which would be some sort of eternal me. chez
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#9
05-16-2007, 10:13 AM
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Re: Modern Pascal\'s Wager adaptation: For real.
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ] [ QUOTE ] Anyway, if you find a hole in this argument please report it. [/ QUOTE ] It would be irrational for me, personally, to devote all my resources to this objective. Same reason why it's irrational for me to vote. [/ QUOTE ] Care to elaborate? [/ QUOTE ] If I am the only human working on this objective, then I am going to die wayyyyyy before I make any significant progress. So it would be pointless for me to do so. If our entire society is working towards this objective, then it would be irrational for me to do so as well, because I could continue to live my life as I want to while everyone else is working to keep me alive forever. Freerider ftw.
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#10
05-16-2007, 10:30 AM
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Re: Modern Pascal\'s Wager adaptation: For real.
Good point, but I could maximize my efforts to minimize the amount of chances I have to die, however I could still get struck by a car walking to the store which is fifty feet away.
So as for progressing science, this I can attempt. But I will continue to smoke blunts and skateboard daily, for no matter how hard you try to minimize chances of death, it can be over-ridden in a second.
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