Death is clearly something we have reason to avoid even when our lives are slightly miserable. — Bartricks
Do you mean that our lives are slightly miserable in the moment, or do you mean in general? When I feel miserable, I have to remind myself that the feeling is temporary, and that there will be times in my life when I'll feel great. Why do we want to help people stuck in depression and having
suicidal thoughts? Because we believe that this emotional state is temporary and it can be changed drastically given enough time and support.
Death under those circumstances would not deprive you of anything worth having — Bartricks
I don't see how this follows. If I'm feeling slightly miserable, I won't accept death as an answer, because it
would deprive me of lots of things worth having in the future. I also anticipate that the time will come when I would like to choose death using rational thinking and not being influenced by an emotional state. I'd like to have personal freedom to make this choice. But I'm just speaking for myself. I wouldn't want other people to die, and I'm sure other people wouldn't want me to choose death. I'm talking about this choice as a matter of personal preference, because in the context of society there are lots of legal and bureaucratic pitfalls that hardly make it possible for society to function in the presence of this choice. Therefore, the topic of wilful death becomes a taboo.
Thus its disvalue is not reflective of the positive value of life — Bartricks
Sorry, I cannot understand this statement. It's a bit hard for me to absorb. I'll move on.
Similarly, when in unending agony, we have reason to die - yet death is still the lesser of two evils under such circumstances — Bartricks
So you're saying that death is the lesser of two evils? Which means that death is the best outcome, doesn't it? When life is an unending agony, then death deprives one of nothing worth having. But if we're slightly miserable, then there is a hope for a better life. In which case, death is a bad outcome because it would deprive us of a hope for a better life. Isn't it true? I feel that you're somehow disagreeing with what I'm saying. I'm saying that in rare circumstances when there is no hope, death is the best option, but most of the time there is enough hope to eliminate death as an option.
So it is plainly implausible that the disvalue of death is a function of the value of life — Bartricks
I'm also having hard times understanding this statement. Let me utilise the rule of double negation: implausible->plausible, disvalue->value. "It is plainly plausible that the value of death is a function of the value of life". Basically, one of the functions of the value of life is to add value to death. This should be a plausible statement. I still cannot wrap my head around it.
Even when life here ceases to report a benefit profit, it remains rational to avoid death up until the harms of continued living become immense. — Bartricks
It's a fun thing to say that life can report benefit profits. It's hard to measure the profits of life objectively. But let's say that we did this. We have a period with losses. How would this look like? Does it mean that after a year of my life I ended up more miserable than I was a year ago? Why should I care? Life goes up and down. Just the fact that sometimes it going down doesn't mean that we should end it instantly.
I used an analogy of a loss making company. If the company - life plc - is recording a slight loss, year on year, you'd think it'd make sense to wind it up immediately. But your accountant tells you that that's not a good idea at all and that it is best to keep it running at a loss and only to wind it up if the losses become huge. What gives? What would be the rational inference to make? Surely that winding the company up will itself incur huge costs, - losses far greater than the losses you incur by keeping it running. — Bartricks
That's a weird reference to make. In my life, I've read a few books about entrepreneurship and how to run a business, although I've never run one. If a company is making losses, I would expect the accountant to tell the CEO that it's not a good idea to keep it running. It's common for a company to have multiple departments, with one of them is making losses. I infer from the literature that it is the role of the CEO to make the hard decision to close that department for the benefit of the entire company.
If there in anything we can infer from this analogy, it is that procreation is profitable. Look at the investor firms. The reality they're operating in is that 9 out of 10 startups they invest in will cease to exist, along with their money. But that 1 startup that eventually flies will cover the expenses of the 9 other startups for the investor. That's why it sucks to be a CEO. Essentially, you need to cover for the failures of 9 other startups to the investors. You can demonstrate an incredible growth, but the investors will still pressure you to grow even more to compensate for all their unsuccessful investments.