4 ms·
I see many comments on this article on people's choice to do anything to avoid dying. One argument I haven't seen covered is the fairness of it. Is it fair to
by d1zzy 7y ago
I see many comments on this article on people's choice to do anything to avoid dying. One argument I haven't seen covered is the fairness of it.
Is it fair to younger generations that we keep on living? If we don't die there will be fewer opportunities for the younger generations, the resources we have all have access to are after all rather limited. Population growth is already too high, immortality can only make it worse. We can see how millennials are struggling with a tight job market and housing market, all because previous generations who now have longer life spans than their parents are holding on these resources.
There are aspects to immortality that go beyond selfishness, such as the experience and knowledge that is lost of the people dying, being a negative to the society. I'm in support of pursuing technology to allow all or most of that knowledge to be preserved and passed on to younger generations but at some point I think we have to accept our role in this world and that role includes having to stop existing and let others have their chance at a full life.
- UnFleshedOne 7y agoThis brings up a question of how you value people who don't exist yet. Technically (not saying anything about politically) the problem you describe can be solved by population control -- "just" don't make more people than can be comfortably supported. We already do that with birth control or by simply not having sex. But that means people who would have been otherwise born would not be. If that is not an issue, perfect, you have your technical solution. If that _is_ an issue, then you have more problems than immortals hoarding resources (one of them is Repugnant Conclusion [0]). Another way to look at it -- would you want current lifespan artificially shortened if you knew for sure that it would make things fairer for new generations? [0] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mere_addition_paradox https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mere_addition_paradox