X-Message-Number: 10138
Date: Wed, 29 Jul 1998 16:05:46 -0400
From: Brook Norton <>
Subject: What you OUGHT to want

I am a libertarian and reflect Charles Platt's view that one need respect
and not interfere with the decisions of others to live their lives as they
see fit.  I also agree with Bob Ettinger's assessment that there is an
objective way to evaluate what everyone OUGHT to want.

The underlying assertion is that **everyone's goal in life should be to
maximize their happiness** (in some combination of short and long-term
happiness).  Whether one agrees with this assertion is a whole new
discussion, but I agree with it and it provides a way to evaluate how good
another person's life decisions are.  A good decision maximizes happiness=2E =

A bad decision does not.  Bob Ettinger wrote:

> To illustrate this point, I often cite a letter to Ann Landers, in which
a
> woman complained that her husband wanted sex and she didn't. Her problem,
as
> she saw it, was how to get her husband to leave her in peace. Her real
> problem, of course, was how to learn how to enjoy sex in a normal manner,
or
> to cure whatever caused her negative feelings.

The woman's desire to not have sex is a bad decision if in the long run she
is less happy than if she had decided to change her attitude and
participate in sex.  No one knows for sure, even her,  which decision would
make her happiest in the long.  Bob apparently feels that it is obvious
that she would be better off learning to enjoy sex.  The main point is that
the decision that leads to the greatest happiness in the RIGHT decision
from a biologically rational standpoint.

When people, ignorant of cryonics, believe they are better off dying in old
age than being frozen, I believe this is the WRONG decision (because I
believe cryonics has a good chance of success).  It will not lead to as
much happiness as being frozen would.  They are certainly entitled to their
opinion that they should not be frozen and I would strongly oppose any
action to force them to be frozen, but they OUGHT to want to be frozen. 
They OUGHT to do that which leads to their greatest happiness.

Brook Norton

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