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The problem with longevity research and its funding is not so much the research or the science, but the cultural stigma[^1]. Secretly, everybody wants to feel,
by dsign 4y ago
The problem with longevity research and its funding is not so much the research or the science, but the cultural stigma[^1]. Secretly, everybody wants to feel, look and be healthy and young. But as virtue-signaling and because otherwise we would go mad, we tend to say that we are happy with our time in the world.
Also, I can't remember a single mainstream book[^1], movie or tv-series where the guys who want to live beyond their natural lifespans are not the antagonists.
We need mainstream movies, tv-series and books where the guys who want to live longer are the good guys and they do it through science. That instead of, say, a dramatization of the life of Elizabeth Báthory, or another vampire movie. In other words, we are very much in need of a cultural movement that makes socially acceptable to fund and to work in these types of projects.
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[^1]: Somebody already commented here that it's better to put that money into fighting infant mortality. As often the case with moonshots, it's easy to find more "rational" things to allocate the money to.
[^2]: I guess there are some people in the Bible that live for a long time. Maybe priests talk about them at mass sometimes?
- nicolashahn 4y agoNot "mainstream" but still fairly popular on the internet is Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality: http://www.hpmor.com/ http://www.hpmor.com/. Yudkowski's Harry Potter makes a pretty good case for seeking immortality.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- ETH_start 4y ago>>We need mainstream movies, tv-series and books where the guys who want to live longer are the good guys and they do it through science. In that respect, Vitalik Buterin is a great role model, in presenting the case for longevity front and center on his Twitter profile: https://twitter.com/VitalikButerin https://twitter.com/VitalikButerin
- klelatti 4y agoThe Dragon Fable? Seems more like the case for moonshots rather than longevity explicitly.
- ETH_start 4y agoI believe the Dragon Fable's main point is that longevity is good, and that the belief that it isn't springs from the attempt by human cultures to concoct meaning in death in order to make it less frightening and heartbreaking.
- nradov 4y agoHow is he a role model? He hasn't done anything, it's just talk. I say that people should stop killing each other. Now I'm a role model for world peace.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- tnzk 4y ago> We need mainstream movies, tv-series and books where the guys who want to live longer are the good guys Faust? Not sure he is a good guy though. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faust https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faust
- makeitdouble 4y agoInteresting point! In that respect Ghost In the Shell and the protagonist moving beyond the human body seems like an alternative take on this issue. More broadly, it looks to me like the ones who succeed in going beyond their allocated life-time are rarely at the center of the story, and more assisting figures or legends. The witch who've lived for 500 years stays in a remote forest far from the world, will help the heroes in a Deus Ex Machina way and get back in the background once her part is done.
- erfgh 4y agoI find it curious and depressing that the solution to a problem like this are movies tv series and books.
- dvfjsdhgfv 4y ago> But as virtue-signaling and because otherwise we would go mad, we tend to say that we are happy with our time in the world. It's not so simple. If we could be like in the famous Alphaville song, longevity seems exciting. Imagine. on the other hand, that you are senile, can hardly move, and have a multitude of ailments in addition to your main disease. No wonder many old people don't perceive death as an unfortunate event, on the contrary. Also, I think there is an Eastern proverb, "Miserable people pass away easily."
- Nursie 4y agoI doubt that all that many old people welcome it, somehow. And that’s not what’s being suggested either - rather more years of active life, more time to enjoy the world.
- nradov 4y agoI suggest that we should all have starships and time machines. So what. Suggestions are meaningless without at least a scientifically plausible path.
- nradov 4y agoThe actual problem with "longevity" research and its funding is that the topic is so broad and vague as to be meaningless. If you want people to live longer then find ways to prevent them from dying prematurely from chronic diseases. The leading causes of death in the USA are heart disease and cancer. So maybe start there. https://www.heart.org/en/get-involved/ways-to-give https://www.heart.org/en/get-involved/ways-to-give https://www.cancer.org/involved/donate.html https://www.cancer.org/involved/donate.html