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Death is not a disease. It is part of life. What people should be scared of is not dying, which is just an inevitability - it is the failure to live while the

Death is not a disease. It is part of life. What people should be scared of is not dying, which is just an inevitability - it is the failure to live while they are alive here on the most beautiful planet in the universe. The future you envy of "consciousness distributed amongst computers scattered throughout space" is not living in the way that we have available to us now here on earth. Look up at the sky. Feel the sun's rays. Visit a mountain and notice the wildlife in the treetops. Just watch those wildlife for a while, until their thoughts become yours. Talk to somebody you've never met before. Just smile and say, how about this weather! What they say will be worth more to you than any number of MIPS from a grid in space.

xvector 6y ago
> Death is not a disease. It is part of life. Death as we know it is only a part of life because we have no other choice. I guarantee you that if tomorrow people could press a button and stave off death and aging for decades at a time, we would suddenly end the narrative that “death is part of life.” If tomorrow doctors could rejuvenate someone on their deathbed to relative youth with the press of a button, it would be done in the vast majority of cases. We are forced to accept death as “part of life” because of our current technological reality, just as we were forced to accept many diseases and a shorter lifespan in the past. But I think it’s clear as day, that if people had control over their mortality and youth, we would not look at death as an inevitability, a “part of life”, but rather a choice, perhaps even a failure on our part.
- wombatmobile 6y ago
  I don’t think being 20 forever would be half as interesting as what happens now. Let’s talk about it in 30 years and see what you think. Just from a practical point of view, have you considered what your miracle elixir is going to do to housing prices and the environment?
- wongarsu 6y ago
  Just because everyone wants immortality for themselves doesn't mean that it's a good thing for humanity. Political and social change is almost entirely achieved by old people retiring and eventually dying, and younger people with different worldviews taking over for them. Removing this process dooms a society to stagnation. Similarly our problems with wealth inequality will get much worse if rich people never die and just keep accumulating wealth forever. And what about population? We can't just keep adding children to a planet if people don't die in meaningful numbers. There are only so many resources to go around.
- redis_mlc 6y ago
  > If tomorrow The narrative you're presenting is fantasy. Nobody is getting relative youth back, except youths. However, in case you weren't aware, the CCP offers immortality via on-going organ replacements for retired party members. Their goal is keep them alive until 150 years old. You can do the math on how many organs that would take, and what these people would do from 70 yo to 150 yo (ie. contribute nothing for more than half their lifespan.) It's estimated that 80% of Chinese hospital beds are dedicated to elder care for retired CCP officials, which is why there was a shortage of beds for corona even as early as 2019. Oh, and the organs come from Xinjiang.

xvector 6y ago

> Death is not a disease. It is part of life. Death as we know it is only a part of life because we have no other choice. I guarantee you that if tomorrow people could press a button and stave off death and aging for decades at a time, we would suddenly end the narrative that “death is part of life.” If tomorrow doctors could rejuvenate someone on their deathbed to relative youth with the press of a button, it would be done in the vast majority of cases. We are forced to accept death as “part of life” because of our current technological reality, just as we were forced to accept many diseases and a shorter lifespan in the past. But I think it’s clear as day, that if people had control over their mortality and youth, we would not look at death as an inevitability, a “part of life”, but rather a choice, perhaps even a failure on our part.

wombatmobile 6y ago
I don’t think being 20 forever would be half as interesting as what happens now. Let’s talk about it in 30 years and see what you think. Just from a practical point of view, have you considered what your miracle elixir is going to do to housing prices and the environment?
wongarsu 6y ago
Just because everyone wants immortality for themselves doesn't mean that it's a good thing for humanity. Political and social change is almost entirely achieved by old people retiring and eventually dying, and younger people with different worldviews taking over for them. Removing this process dooms a society to stagnation. Similarly our problems with wealth inequality will get much worse if rich people never die and just keep accumulating wealth forever. And what about population? We can't just keep adding children to a planet if people don't die in meaningful numbers. There are only so many resources to go around.
redis_mlc 6y ago
> If tomorrow The narrative you're presenting is fantasy. Nobody is getting relative youth back, except youths. However, in case you weren't aware, the CCP offers immortality via on-going organ replacements for retired party members. Their goal is keep them alive until 150 years old. You can do the math on how many organs that would take, and what these people would do from 70 yo to 150 yo (ie. contribute nothing for more than half their lifespan.) It's estimated that 80% of Chinese hospital beds are dedicated to elder care for retired CCP officials, which is why there was a shortage of beds for corona even as early as 2019. Oh, and the organs come from Xinjiang.