6 ms·
So will my new born become immortal or not? Do I have a chance?
by Roritharr 8y ago
So will my new born become immortal or not? Do I have a chance?
- ddorian43 8y agoI still fail to see why the scintist-god would give you/me immortality unless we become their slaves ? Just give it to Bill Gates and he can hook you up with enough cash?
- melling 8y agoThe need to head for the dystopian view is overwhelming? Of course, with some effort we might simply figure out how to double our lifespans to 160-200 years. Albert Einstein, for example, could still be alive discussing physics with Stephen Hawking.
- jacquesm 8y agoScience advances with the death of prominent scientists who have become obstacles to progress. I see no reason why Hawkings or Einsteins would be exceptions to that rule.
- MikkoFinell 8y agoYeah we can at last make some more progress in science, now that we're finally rid of Hawking.
- jacquesm 8y agoYou are entirely missing the point. If Hawking and Einstein lived longer so would everybody else. And that would mean that a younger generation of scientists would have to wait much longer before their ideas could be discussed without opposition from the established elders who see their pet theories attacked by these uppity youngsters. The quote is a riff on what Max Planck, himself an eminent scientist said on the subject: "Science advances one funeral at a time." https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Max_Planck https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Max_Planck
- melling 8y agoIt’s not a rule but an observation. We can certainly become more self-aware and change our behavior. Munger’s Psychology of human misjudgment, for instance, is enlightening: https://youtu.be/pqzcCfUglws https://youtu.be/pqzcCfUglws
- MikkoFinell 8y ago> And that would mean that a younger generation of scientists would have to wait much longer before their ideas could be discussed without opposition from the established elders who see their pet theories attacked by these uppity youngsters. Okay I will accept that premise for the sake of the argument even though I don't actually believe it's true. Based on that you go on to conclude it's a good thing that scientists die, so that science can keep advancing. You're essentially faced with a trolley problem, where pulling the lever one way will make everyone immortal at the cost of slowing down scientific progress, but pulling it the other way will euthanize everyone in the world, and euthanize the countless billions that might live in the future. Somehow your morals (or whatever you call it) tell you that euthanizing everyone is better than slowing down scientific progress. I disagree with you there. Why not even try to solve the problem some other way than killing everyone? I don't know, why not, say, create an off-world colony outside the reach of those evil progress-impeding elders. Just throwing ideas out there. Taking your logic to its limit, why not just kill every scientist after their first paper is published? But I don't think you actually want that, so lets hear your argument against my strawman.
- magduf 8y agoI also don't believe it's true. The entire nature of science is that theories are modified or discarded as new empirical evidence disproves them. This idea that established immortal scientists would cling to proven-false theories despite evidence from "uppity youngsters" just flies in the face of what science is all about. If he were talking about politics, he'd have a point, since there's a lot of irrational dogma in that field. Also, don't forget, if we can figure out how to eliminate aging, that also means we'll eliminate many (maybe all) things that go along with biological aging, such as the changes to the brain that cause older people to tend to be less adaptable (which really is a bit of a stereotype and not all that true; my 80 year old mother happily uses a laptop computer, smartphone, and tablet, while 30 years ago she wouldn't have dreamed of being like this).
- wwwtyro 8y agoThat's a good point. We should probably murder any scientists once they reach about 50, so we can speed up progress.
- logfromblammo 8y agoAnd here I thought we only murdered scientists--or at least killed their careers--when they stopped publishing. "Publish or perish."
- ddorian43 8y agoWhat has happened with increasing lifespans till now ? Has wealth been more or less distributed ? Can we extrapolate 80 -> 200 years old ?
- obelix_ 8y agoBad example. Einstein wasn't exactly a 'life is worth living' advertisement by the time he reached old age. I doubt he would have taken the offer. Source - https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zpTUjb-iKf4 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zpTUjb-iKf4
- melling 8y agoDo you honestly expect people to watch an hour video to get your point? Pick two, or more, of your favorite scientists. Richard Feynman?
- ben_w 8y agoGive? Patents expire, then commercial pressure takes over. And if they try to keep it secret, someone else will replicate their work and the outcome is much the same.
- jacquesm 8y agoIn a world with immortals immortals will end up holding the power and they will ensure they continue to hold on to that power. If patents are still a thing in a world like that you can expect such simple changes to legislation as 'patents expire with the death of the inventor', it seems to be good at first glance but in a world with immortals it means some patents will never expire further cementing their hold on power. Immortality will create a lot more problems than it will solve.
- MikkoFinell 8y agoYour solution to the problem with patents is to kill everyone?
- ben_w 8y agoPatents currently expire before any immortality products could be known to work correctly. So why would anyone change a rule like that?
- wwwtyro 8y ago> Immortality No reasonable person is talking about immortality. The issue here is defeating the diseases of old age. > will create a lot more problems than it will solve. That's a massive unfounded claim you're holding up against saving the lives of a hundred thousand people per day.
- Symmetry 8y agoThe same reason scientists gave us cancer drugs, AIDS drugs, etc without us becoming their slaves?
- ben_w 8y agoProbably, yes. Even five years ago people were saying “we think the first immortal [1] has already been born, we just don’t know how old they are.” [1] As in no inherent old age, rather than un-killable.
- MikkoFinell 8y agoI will give your offspring a 90% chance to get in on the longevity escape velocity. You get around 50% depending on your current age and general health. If you are close to 40 years old, and have been neglecting your health, then you might want to invest in cryogenics. Otherwise you want to invest in artificial intelligence and medical research.
- tzahola 8y agoNo, and no.
- subcosmos 8y agoYour newborn has a chance, and that chance goes up if you participate in research.