4 ms·

Imagine the costs of a vaccine that would make you immortal in the US? Surely not everyone would be able to afford it. But then we could implement an immortali

Imagine the costs of a vaccine that would make you immortal in the US? Surely not everyone would be able to afford it. But then we could implement an immortality lottery, to give everyone a shot. That could be the devious slogan: “everyone gets a shot”. Devious because not everyone does, of course. If you win you get the vaccine and live forever, but your friends and family aren’t included.

dougmwne 5y ago
Death represents a pretty serious destruction of human capital. If people will work forever, then why not let them live forever, much less retraining and less money spent on recruiting. This is only semi-sarcastic;)
- lordnacho 5y ago
  Thank you for your application for "Junior Developer". Unfortunately we only take applicants with 100 years of JavaScript experience, 100 years of c++, at least 2M stars on GitHub contributions, and 4 PhDs in machine learning, and 200 StackOverflow points. Feel free to apply again next time Halley's comet is visible.
  - NullPrefix 5y ago
    >200 StackOverflow points You forgot to mention Excel and Word.
  - Andy_G11 5y ago
    It would allow career diversification, though. Maybe there's a bit part going in Sly Stallone's 'Expendables 3194'?
- no_way 5y ago
  Death does allow for new cultural shift in society, imagine if all the politicians lived forever, the space for change would be even more limited than it is now/
gremloni 5y ago
Stop being a Luddite. That’s how technology works. First it’s available to only the super rich because it is expensive, then over time with advances and improvement or production it becomes more widely available. It’s cell therapy, it will inevitable end up becoming cheap.
- ClumsyPilot 5y ago
  "will inevitable end up becoming cheap." Or we will end up an immortal ruling class cartel...
  - gremloni 5y ago
    It’s going to be really hard keeping immortality under wraps now. The world is globalized and even under the most pessimistic of timelines it will eventually be open knowledge.
stjohnswarts 5y ago
I think for immortality I might be convinced to save up for a year and visit Japan...
lottin 5y ago
I don't know why you assume it will be unaffordable.
pengaru 5y ago
The real affordability problem of immortality is resources to support the population growth when people stop dying off.
SapporoChris 5y ago
Imagine the financial output in USA extended by immortality. Like the Covid vaccine, it would be free to anyone. A government would be foolish to miss out on the increased financial output of it's citizens. But of course a vaccine against aging isn't a ticket to immortality. Death comes in all forms, if you vaccinate against aging, another leading cause of death will come along.
ClumsyPilot 5y ago
"Imagine the costs of a vaccine that would make you immortal in the US? Surely not everyone would be able to afford it" Why not? Surely that would depend on how much it costs to make, maybe it would be cheap as chips? Oh, I see you completely subscribe to the customer theory of value, where price is dictated by "how much is it worth to the client?" In that case it would have to be a subscribtion. Or, once you get the shot, the company ownes you. Come to this of it, the two situations are actually the same.

dougmwne 5y ago

Death represents a pretty serious destruction of human capital. If people will work forever, then why not let them live forever, much less retraining and less money spent on recruiting. This is only semi-sarcastic;)

lordnacho 5y ago
Thank you for your application for "Junior Developer". Unfortunately we only take applicants with 100 years of JavaScript experience, 100 years of c++, at least 2M stars on GitHub contributions, and 4 PhDs in machine learning, and 200 StackOverflow points. Feel free to apply again next time Halley's comet is visible.
- NullPrefix 5y ago
  >200 StackOverflow points You forgot to mention Excel and Word.
- Andy_G11 5y ago
  It would allow career diversification, though. Maybe there's a bit part going in Sly Stallone's 'Expendables 3194'?
no_way 5y ago
Death does allow for new cultural shift in society, imagine if all the politicians lived forever, the space for change would be even more limited than it is now/

gremloni 5y ago

Stop being a Luddite. That’s how technology works. First it’s available to only the super rich because it is expensive, then over time with advances and improvement or production it becomes more widely available. It’s cell therapy, it will inevitable end up becoming cheap.

ClumsyPilot 5y ago
"will inevitable end up becoming cheap." Or we will end up an immortal ruling class cartel...
- gremloni 5y ago
  It’s going to be really hard keeping immortality under wraps now. The world is globalized and even under the most pessimistic of timelines it will eventually be open knowledge.

stjohnswarts 5y ago

I think for immortality I might be convinced to save up for a year and visit Japan...

lottin 5y ago

I don't know why you assume it will be unaffordable.

pengaru 5y ago

The real affordability problem of immortality is resources to support the population growth when people stop dying off.

SapporoChris 5y ago

Imagine the financial output in USA extended by immortality. Like the Covid vaccine, it would be free to anyone. A government would be foolish to miss out on the increased financial output of it's citizens. But of course a vaccine against aging isn't a ticket to immortality. Death comes in all forms, if you vaccinate against aging, another leading cause of death will come along.

ClumsyPilot 5y ago

"Imagine the costs of a vaccine that would make you immortal in the US? Surely not everyone would be able to afford it" Why not? Surely that would depend on how much it costs to make, maybe it would be cheap as chips? Oh, I see you completely subscribe to the customer theory of value, where price is dictated by "how much is it worth to the client?" In that case it would have to be a subscribtion. Or, once you get the shot, the company ownes you. Come to this of it, the two situations are actually the same.