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You don't seem a death-worshipper. This is only skepticism about the practicality of eliminating death, not a rejection of the central thesis that "The dragon i

You don't seem a death-worshipper. This is only skepticism about the practicality of eliminating death, not a rejection of the central thesis that "The dragon is bad!".

joe_the_user 9y ago
Well, I am in favor of extending life indefinitely and even creating "back-ups" of people. But I think it's important to emphasize this would not be some easy victory or simple change in society whose implications we wouldn't have to very carefully consider. There's everything from overpopulation to society become stagnant to universal boredom and beyond to consider. We humans are biological creatures. Aging is part of our present day existence so this level of change would change a whole lot. So, I don't necessarily disagree that "death is bad" but I think ONLY saying may also be bad.
- lopmotr 9y ago
  > There's everything from overpopulation to society become stagnant to universal boredom and beyond to consider. If you stop to consider that at all, it's equivalent to stopping to consider the idea that "old people are wasting our resources, maybe there's some value in killing them off once they start repeating themselves too much". Because it's the exact same thing but one is shoot them with a gun and the other is deny them healthcare to prolong life. Nothing wrong with considering that of course, but it should never be a reason to avoid discovering immortality.
s_kilk 9y ago
The whole death-worshipper thing in this fable is so deeply flawed that's its fatal to the whole argument. The author frames the "death worshipper" as wrong because the dragon is an obviously artificial threat that came along one day and imposed its will on humanity, that there was a time before the dragon that the worshippers are ignoring. As an analogy for death, this is a crock, frankly.
mikeash 9y ago
What about the position that there is no dragon? I find this focus on “eliminating death” to be extremely confusing. Death isn’t actually a thing. It’s a bazillion different things with a bazillion different causes. You’ve probably seen people criticize the concept of “curing cancer” because cancer is actually a broad term for a bunch of different diseases, and there won’t be a single cure for everything. “Death” is like that times a million.

You don't seem a death-worshipper. This is only skepticism about the practicality of eliminating death, not a rejection of the central thesis that "The dragon is bad!".

joe_the_user 9y ago

Well, I am in favor of extending life indefinitely and even creating "back-ups" of people. But I think it's important to emphasize this would not be some easy victory or simple change in society whose implications we wouldn't have to very carefully consider. There's everything from overpopulation to society become stagnant to universal boredom and beyond to consider. We humans are biological creatures. Aging is part of our present day existence so this level of change would change a whole lot. So, I don't necessarily disagree that "death is bad" but I think ONLY saying may also be bad.

lopmotr 9y ago
> There's everything from overpopulation to society become stagnant to universal boredom and beyond to consider. If you stop to consider that at all, it's equivalent to stopping to consider the idea that "old people are wasting our resources, maybe there's some value in killing them off once they start repeating themselves too much". Because it's the exact same thing but one is shoot them with a gun and the other is deny them healthcare to prolong life. Nothing wrong with considering that of course, but it should never be a reason to avoid discovering immortality.

s_kilk 9y ago

The whole death-worshipper thing in this fable is so deeply flawed that's its fatal to the whole argument. The author frames the "death worshipper" as wrong because the dragon is an obviously artificial threat that came along one day and imposed its will on humanity, that there was a time before the dragon that the worshippers are ignoring. As an analogy for death, this is a crock, frankly.

mikeash 9y ago

What about the position that there is no dragon? I find this focus on “eliminating death” to be extremely confusing. Death isn’t actually a thing. It’s a bazillion different things with a bazillion different causes. You’ve probably seen people criticize the concept of “curing cancer” because cancer is actually a broad term for a bunch of different diseases, and there won’t be a single cure for everything. “Death” is like that times a million.