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It doesn't carry much weight when we write how lucky we are to be mortal, since being immortal has never been a realistic option. It brings to mind how Iain M.
by newsbinator 7y ago
It doesn't carry much weight when we write how lucky we are to be mortal, since being immortal has never been a realistic option.
It brings to mind how Iain M. Banks wrote in the Culture series about beings who chose functional immortality by uploading their consciousness to networked hardware. One of them still programmed himself to need to pee in the simulation, because he liked doing it.
Whereas I'd be surprised if any being programmed themselves to die in the simulation and be wiped away.
But if they did, I'd love to know their reasoning.
- gpderetta 7y agoIn the Culture, for biological beings, it is considered in bad taste to live more than a 4-5 centuries. Although effective biological immortality is possible, at that age most Culture citizen choose to die, while a some upload themselves or become drones. I do not remember the books go too much into details about the reason for this tradition though.
- newsbinator 7y agoI don't remember the reasons either: it might be to make space in the sciences and arts for new ideas and new ways of thinking. Basically an avoidance of the kind of entrenched dogmas Eric Weinstein has been podcasting about.