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The quest for immortality isn't a 0 or 1 objective. Using technology to reduce or reverse aging is one aspect. Using technology to reduce the accident fatality
by sxp 6y ago
The quest for immortality isn't a 0 or 1 objective. Using technology to reduce or reverse aging is one aspect. Using technology to reduce the accident fatality rate is another aspect. E.g, what was the car fatality rate 100 years ago and what is it now when you account for safer cars and better medical tech.
Unless you bypass the Second Law of Thermodynamics (Greg Egan's Permutation City provides a possible example), technology will get us asymptotically closer to true immortality. But even if we don't reach true immortality, reducing suffering caused by our current level of mortality is a noble goal.
- squibbles 6y agoI disagree that technology will get us asymptotically closer to true immortality. It is far more likely that technology gets us asymptotically closer to a theoretical maximum lifespan that is determined by our relationship with the environment. Radical changes to our form might extend that theoretical maximum, but it is not clear that someone who wants immortality would be satisfied with a form radically different from human. As an example, an entity with a fractured consciousness that spans tens of thousands of lightyears (yet not necessarily dispersed enough to be considered immortal) would have a radically different concept of self. If one was uncomfortable with the concept of a few dying for the many, in order to perpetuate the species, then a dispersed consciousness devoid of a self seems equally unpalatable.