X-Message-Number: 32114
From: David Stodolsky <>
Subject: Re: CryoNet #32103
Date: Fri, 30 Oct 2009 10:25:11 +0100
References: <>

On 28 Oct 2009, at 10:00 AM, CryoNet wrote:


>  In YOUNIVERSE I have demonstrated, at least to my own satisfaction,
> that self interest (properly understood) is not only the only  
> conscious
> motivation of everyone, but the only possible motivation, no  
> exceptions.

Self-sacrifice is observable in most organisms, at least from worms to  
humans, evolutionarily speaking. There is good evidence for multi- 
level evolution, which means there is also a group "survival  
instinct". This is characterized as hardiness, a psychological  
variable (see Maddi, et al.):

"Hardiness fits into the existential frame of reference. The attitude  
of commitment leads you to want to be inextricably involved with the  
people and events in your world. The control attitude leads you to the  
conviction that you deeply influence what is going on in your life.  
And the challenge attitude encourages you to keep learning from the  
resulting experiences, so that you can find meaning and wisdom. In all  
this, hardiness assumes that humans have both social and psychological  
needs (Maddi, 2002b). The social need leads you to want continuing  
contact, communication, and solidarity with the others around you. And  
the psychological need, based on the continual information  
requirements of the big brain humans that have evolved, leads you to  
search continually for the stimulation provided by new experience. Put  
the two needs together, and that is the human basis for the value of  
deepening social relationships in the direction of intimacy and  
caring, rather than mere contractuality."

http://www.psychologymatters.org/hardiness.html


http://jhp.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/44/3/279

Hardiness: An Operationalization of Existential Courage (Maddi,  
Journal of Humanistic Psychology, Vol. 44, No. 3, 279-298 (2004))

This indicates that the self-centeredness advocated above is actually  
detrimental to the growth of cryonics, since: "Hardiness has been  
shown in research to ... increase perceptions and actions consistent  
with choosing the future."

Yet another indication that amateur social science is hazardous to the  
future of cryonics.


dss

David Stodolsky
  Skype: davidstodolsky

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