5 ms·

I'd say avoiding death is about as likely as overtaking the speed of light. It seems like science fiction to me. No matter how much progress we make, we might

I'd say avoiding death is about as likely as overtaking the speed of light. It seems like science fiction to me. No matter how much progress we make, we might be trying to do something that's literally impossible. That doesn't mean we can't research it, and certainly we can discover things that are useful. But there's really no reason to believe immortality is achievable. And honestly there are lots of works of fiction on why it's actually bad for humanity.

LandStander 4y ago
I don't want true immortality, but it would be momentous if we could significantly extend people's active lifespan. Imagine if 100 was the new 50, and 200 was the new 100.
- LocalH 4y ago
  For every person who would benefit from that, there would be someone harmed by that. We should instead focus on ways to alter our very perception of time - paying attention to the actual passage of time will usually slow it down for you. Time is very fluid for us, most of us just don’t realize it.
- aaron_m04 4y ago
  Counterpoint: imagine if we got 50 extra years of extremely low quality life at great financial cost, and the courts decided that withholding the longevity treatment from anyone was a crime. The result would be lots of misery and a wealth transfer from regular people to the medical and pharma industry.
- phkahler 4y ago
  I think this misses the point of the essay completely. Hoping for life extension like that is simply a form of procrastination. What is it you hope to do better if only you could have more time? The hourglass has already been turn over, what are you going to do before the sand runs out? Go!
  - bombcar 4y ago
    This is exactly the whole point - if you haven't "spent" your time wisely now how will doubling it help that? It's basically this: https://9gag.com/gag/a815W1d https://9gag.com/gag/a815W1d and it's been noted time and time again ... Tired of lying in the sunshine, staying home to watch the rain You are young and life is long, and there is time to kill today And then one day you find ten years have got behind you No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rL3AgkwbYgo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rL3AgkwbYgo
  - Teever 4y ago
    In all your travels, have you ever seen a star go supernova? ... I have. I saw a star explode and send out the building blocks of the Universe. Other stars, other planets and eventually other life. A supernova! Creation itself! I was there. I wanted to see it and be part of the moment. And you know how I perceived one of the most glorious events in the universe? With these ridiculous gelatinous orbs in my skull! With eyes designed to perceive only a tiny fraction of the EM spectrum. With ears designed only to hear vibrations in the air. ... I don't want to be human! I want to see gamma rays! I want to hear X-rays! And I want to - I want to smell dark matter! Do you see the absurdity of what I am? I can't even express these things properly because I have to - I have to conceptualize complex ideas in this stupid limiting spoken language! But I know I want to reach out with something other than these prehensile paws! And feel the wind of a supernova flowing over me! I'm a machine! And I can know much more! I can experience so much more. But I'm trapped in this absurd body! And why? Because my five creators thought that God wanted it that way!”
  - mateo1 4y ago
    There are many issues that can be solved with extra time. But should we all be living 200 or 300 years, society would probably be restructured in a way to squeeze that extra time out of you. Want financial stability and a good work/life balance? A house? Just grind for 200 years and you'll be set...
rowanG077 4y ago
Avoiding death is impossible like you say. In many, many, many years the universe will be nothing but black holes without any way to harvest any energy. It will be impossible for a human to live then. But conquering aging? There is not a doubt in my mind that this is possible.
- McLaren_Ferrari 4y ago
  > Avoiding death is impossible like you say. In many, many, many years the universe will be nothing but black holes without any way to harvest any energy. It will be impossible for a human to live then That is just the conclusion reached by the best and brightest chimps among the 8 billions chimps that dominate all the other species on the planet. Even Einstein and Hawking might be victims of the Dunning Kruger effect, only there is nobody smarter than them who are currently around to mock them or feel pity towards them. All the physics and science that we do should come with a huge asterisk disclaiming that it's only the conclusion reached by the brightest and most specialized chimps.
  - hotpotamus 4y ago
    Theoretically it is indeed possible to harvest energy from black holes, however they also evaporate at unimaginably slow timescales.
- frontman1988 4y ago
  Heat death is only a hypothesis. There is so much we don't know about the universe that it's not wise to have a know it all defeatist attitude.
ant6n 4y ago
FTL is physically impossible as far as we know. Immortality, like practical immortality, as in life spans in the thousands or millions of years, does not appear physically impossible. Just very complicated.
Nextgrid 4y ago
> I'd say avoiding death is about as likely as overtaking the speed of light. I don't think the two are comparable. Overtaking the speed of light is impossible according to our current understanding of physics. Death on the other hand seems to be due to defects in our bodies (and most living organisms) - nature just hasn't "planned" for them to function for so long and pretty much cut corners. Those defects might be hard to fix with our current technology and/or understanding of medicine, but they're not proven to be impossible. In fact unlike the speed of light, "death" isn't even a single specific event where someone's brain just quits for good but is due to a variety of factors, some of which we can already control and resolve (it used to be that cardiac arrest is guaranteed death, nowadays it's no longer a certainty). In addition, there are many different ways of "solving death". Even if we assume that any living body must die because of some unbreakable law of physics, if we could move someone's consciousness to a new body (or a "virtual machine" in a computer) we've effectively solved the problem anyway.

LandStander 4y ago

I don't want true immortality, but it would be momentous if we could significantly extend people's active lifespan. Imagine if 100 was the new 50, and 200 was the new 100.

LocalH 4y ago
For every person who would benefit from that, there would be someone harmed by that. We should instead focus on ways to alter our very perception of time - paying attention to the actual passage of time will usually slow it down for you. Time is very fluid for us, most of us just don’t realize it.
aaron_m04 4y ago
Counterpoint: imagine if we got 50 extra years of extremely low quality life at great financial cost, and the courts decided that withholding the longevity treatment from anyone was a crime. The result would be lots of misery and a wealth transfer from regular people to the medical and pharma industry.
phkahler 4y ago
I think this misses the point of the essay completely. Hoping for life extension like that is simply a form of procrastination. What is it you hope to do better if only you could have more time? The hourglass has already been turn over, what are you going to do before the sand runs out? Go!
- bombcar 4y ago
  This is exactly the whole point - if you haven't "spent" your time wisely now how will doubling it help that? It's basically this: https://9gag.com/gag/a815W1d https://9gag.com/gag/a815W1d and it's been noted time and time again ... Tired of lying in the sunshine, staying home to watch the rain You are young and life is long, and there is time to kill today And then one day you find ten years have got behind you No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rL3AgkwbYgo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rL3AgkwbYgo
- Teever 4y ago
  In all your travels, have you ever seen a star go supernova? ... I have. I saw a star explode and send out the building blocks of the Universe. Other stars, other planets and eventually other life. A supernova! Creation itself! I was there. I wanted to see it and be part of the moment. And you know how I perceived one of the most glorious events in the universe? With these ridiculous gelatinous orbs in my skull! With eyes designed to perceive only a tiny fraction of the EM spectrum. With ears designed only to hear vibrations in the air. ... I don't want to be human! I want to see gamma rays! I want to hear X-rays! And I want to - I want to smell dark matter! Do you see the absurdity of what I am? I can't even express these things properly because I have to - I have to conceptualize complex ideas in this stupid limiting spoken language! But I know I want to reach out with something other than these prehensile paws! And feel the wind of a supernova flowing over me! I'm a machine! And I can know much more! I can experience so much more. But I'm trapped in this absurd body! And why? Because my five creators thought that God wanted it that way!”
- mateo1 4y ago
  There are many issues that can be solved with extra time. But should we all be living 200 or 300 years, society would probably be restructured in a way to squeeze that extra time out of you. Want financial stability and a good work/life balance? A house? Just grind for 200 years and you'll be set...

rowanG077 4y ago

Avoiding death is impossible like you say. In many, many, many years the universe will be nothing but black holes without any way to harvest any energy. It will be impossible for a human to live then. But conquering aging? There is not a doubt in my mind that this is possible.

McLaren_Ferrari 4y ago
> Avoiding death is impossible like you say. In many, many, many years the universe will be nothing but black holes without any way to harvest any energy. It will be impossible for a human to live then That is just the conclusion reached by the best and brightest chimps among the 8 billions chimps that dominate all the other species on the planet. Even Einstein and Hawking might be victims of the Dunning Kruger effect, only there is nobody smarter than them who are currently around to mock them or feel pity towards them. All the physics and science that we do should come with a huge asterisk disclaiming that it's only the conclusion reached by the brightest and most specialized chimps.
- hotpotamus 4y ago
  Theoretically it is indeed possible to harvest energy from black holes, however they also evaporate at unimaginably slow timescales.
frontman1988 4y ago
Heat death is only a hypothesis. There is so much we don't know about the universe that it's not wise to have a know it all defeatist attitude.

ant6n 4y ago

FTL is physically impossible as far as we know. Immortality, like practical immortality, as in life spans in the thousands or millions of years, does not appear physically impossible. Just very complicated.

Nextgrid 4y ago

> I'd say avoiding death is about as likely as overtaking the speed of light. I don't think the two are comparable. Overtaking the speed of light is impossible according to our current understanding of physics. Death on the other hand seems to be due to defects in our bodies (and most living organisms) - nature just hasn't "planned" for them to function for so long and pretty much cut corners. Those defects might be hard to fix with our current technology and/or understanding of medicine, but they're not proven to be impossible. In fact unlike the speed of light, "death" isn't even a single specific event where someone's brain just quits for good but is due to a variety of factors, some of which we can already control and resolve (it used to be that cardiac arrest is guaranteed death, nowadays it's no longer a certainty). In addition, there are many different ways of "solving death". Even if we assume that any living body must die because of some unbreakable law of physics, if we could move someone's consciousness to a new body (or a "virtual machine" in a computer) we've effectively solved the problem anyway.