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 Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=10138