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> existential suffering of knowing your time is limited, and that of knowing you're about to die In my experience, this is largely limited to the young and she

by drb91 9y ago

> existential suffering of knowing your time is limited, and that of knowing you're about to die In my experience, this is largely limited to the young and sheltered. Mature people can proces death in healthy ways.

TeMPOraL 9y ago
That's not healthy. That's a coping mechanism. It's society legitimizing what's essentially a case of Stockholm syndrome.
- drb91 9y ago
  What would a world without death LOOK like to you? How would people vie for this immortality treatement? For food? Seems like something only an absurdly rich person would want for the world.
  - JoshTriplett 9y ago
    > What would a world without death LOOK like to you? People stop dying. We stop losing a hundred and fifty thousand people forever every single day. The vast majority of resources that would go to health-related (and death-related) industries briefly get redirected to getting the cure to everyone, then get freed up for numerous other things. The state of science and human knowledge improves because we no longer lose experienced minds to age and infirmity. People start checking things off their "bucket lists", and adding many more to their life goals, realizing that they have all the time in the universe now. People stop having to mourn the losses of those they love. (There'd likely be more than a few points where people have to stop and re-mourn past deaths, once it truly hits them that death could have been eliminated much sooner.) I would also recommend reading https://nickbostrom.com/fable/dragon.html https://nickbostrom.com/fable/dragon.html . > How would people vie for this immortality treatement? Hundreds of organizations and tens of thousands of people would dedicate everything they have to getting the treatment to everyone as quickly as possible, asking only for what resources that people can afford, and using all of those resources to accelerate reaching more people before it's too late. > For food? We have more than enough food for everyone. If you're attempting to imply overpopulation, that's been studied, and it's not an issue.
  - aninhumer 9y ago
    I think it helps to reframe the problem this way: If people somehow magically stopped dying of old age tomorrow, would we choose to solve the resource problems that caused by re-implementing anything similar to death as it exists now? Say, for example, by executing everyone at the age of 75? I think we'd be much more likely to prefer an alternative solution, such as restricting birth rates.

by drb91 9y ago

TeMPOraL 9y ago

That's not healthy. That's a coping mechanism. It's society legitimizing what's essentially a case of Stockholm syndrome.

drb91 9y ago
What would a world without death LOOK like to you? How would people vie for this immortality treatement? For food? Seems like something only an absurdly rich person would want for the world.
- JoshTriplett 9y ago
  > What would a world without death LOOK like to you? People stop dying. We stop losing a hundred and fifty thousand people forever every single day. The vast majority of resources that would go to health-related (and death-related) industries briefly get redirected to getting the cure to everyone, then get freed up for numerous other things. The state of science and human knowledge improves because we no longer lose experienced minds to age and infirmity. People start checking things off their "bucket lists", and adding many more to their life goals, realizing that they have all the time in the universe now. People stop having to mourn the losses of those they love. (There'd likely be more than a few points where people have to stop and re-mourn past deaths, once it truly hits them that death could have been eliminated much sooner.) I would also recommend reading https://nickbostrom.com/fable/dragon.html https://nickbostrom.com/fable/dragon.html . > How would people vie for this immortality treatement? Hundreds of organizations and tens of thousands of people would dedicate everything they have to getting the treatment to everyone as quickly as possible, asking only for what resources that people can afford, and using all of those resources to accelerate reaching more people before it's too late. > For food? We have more than enough food for everyone. If you're attempting to imply overpopulation, that's been studied, and it's not an issue.
- aninhumer 9y ago
  I think it helps to reframe the problem this way: If people somehow magically stopped dying of old age tomorrow, would we choose to solve the resource problems that caused by re-implementing anything similar to death as it exists now? Say, for example, by executing everyone at the age of 75? I think we'd be much more likely to prefer an alternative solution, such as restricting birth rates.