3 ms·

Telling someone they should die of old age because it’s Natural? How is that any different from telling people to die of diabetes or cancer?

by nikanj 5y ago

stareatgoats 5y ago
Consider for a moment that everything is different in some aspect. Nothing discernible is the same. So, your question is certainly valid: how is a biologically encoded lifespan different than trying to avoid death by treating various illnesses? But your comment seems to imply that there is no valid difference, to which I beg to differ. The essential difference is this: the quest to extend human life span beyond the encoding found in the genes of our species is obviously different than trying to essentially reach the predestined life encoded in the genes of our species. This is why we experience tragedy when someone "dies before their time", especially children, but also young adults and so on up until the non-tragic but nonetheless sad deaths of 100-yearolds, who had lived a "long and fulfilling life". I'm sure this does not convince the hardened transhumanist of the qualitative difference, but there you go. It's how I look at it anyway, without knowing exactly how we can control the current scramble to obtain and exploit the crucial IPs in this domain.
magpi3 5y ago
We live on a finite planet with finite resources. What do you do with children if immortality becomes a thing? Should we sterilize people? Kill the young if it gets too much? Or maybe a good old fashioned war between the "old" and young will solve the problem. Look at what's happening in Japan, where the young struggle to get a job because their elders are retiring older and older. Now imagine, they never retire because they are immortal. The only way someone dies is by accident of if someone kills them. How would such a world not devolve into a dystopia?

3 ms·

Telling someone they should die of old age because it’s Natural? How is that any different from telling people to die of diabetes or cancer?

by nikanj 5y ago

Telling someone they should die of old age because it’s Natural? How is that any different from telling people to die of diabetes or cancer?

stareatgoats 5y ago
Consider for a moment that everything is different in some aspect. Nothing discernible is the same. So, your question is certainly valid: how is a biologically encoded lifespan different than trying to avoid death by treating various illnesses? But your comment seems to imply that there is no valid difference, to which I beg to differ. The essential difference is this: the quest to extend human life span beyond the encoding found in the genes of our species is obviously different than trying to essentially reach the predestined life encoded in the genes of our species. This is why we experience tragedy when someone "dies before their time", especially children, but also young adults and so on up until the non-tragic but nonetheless sad deaths of 100-yearolds, who had lived a "long and fulfilling life". I'm sure this does not convince the hardened transhumanist of the qualitative difference, but there you go. It's how I look at it anyway, without knowing exactly how we can control the current scramble to obtain and exploit the crucial IPs in this domain.
magpi3 5y ago
We live on a finite planet with finite resources. What do you do with children if immortality becomes a thing? Should we sterilize people? Kill the young if it gets too much? Or maybe a good old fashioned war between the "old" and young will solve the problem. Look at what's happening in Japan, where the young struggle to get a job because their elders are retiring older and older. Now imagine, they never retire because they are immortal. The only way someone dies is by accident of if someone kills them. How would such a world not devolve into a dystopia?