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Hey, 6 years ago I wrote a blog to address the need to waste hours having such a discussion. It’s a form of bike shedding. Immortality is a really hard problem

Hey, 6 years ago I wrote a blog to address the need to waste hours having such a discussion. It’s a form of bike shedding. Immortality is a really hard problem so we kill time playing “what if” https://h4labs.wordpress.com/2017/03/ https://h4labs.wordpress.com/2017/03/ “”” Some stories on HN are a complete waste of time. Little real knowledge is ever included in the threads. No one learns anything. We just bullshit for a few hours. And this happens a few times a year for each topic. My first suggestion is stories related to immortality. Most of the comments immediately turn philosophical. “Death gives life meaning” “It’ll only be for rich people” “The money should be spent on something better.” On HN, most people don’t want to learn anything about aging. No one discusses the basic science that we might gain by doing the research. The knowledge gained could have benefits in other areas of medicine like heart disease and cancer, for example. You aren’t going to want to live forever and have Alzheimer’s. “””

alexb_ 4y ago
The idea that "will my life ever have meaning" and "will I be forced to work for all of eternity" is just bikeshedding is absolutely ludicrous. What is with this new thing where we call death a "disease" anyways? A disease implies that getting rid of it is a good thing. It's sneaking a very controversial statement (dying should be eradicated) into the post.
- melling 4y ago
  As I stated 6 years ago, we aren’t likely to “cure death” anytime soon. So, rather than run into the weeds and wax philosophical, maybe we can give it a good effort “Finally, let’s not delude ourselves into thinking that death is going to be an easy disease to cure. Maybe we’ll get a few breakthroughs over the next couple of decades and we’ll figure out how to add a few extra healthy years to the average person. We definitely need to move beyond long term studies and peer deeper into our bodies.”

alexb_ 4y ago

The idea that "will my life ever have meaning" and "will I be forced to work for all of eternity" is just bikeshedding is absolutely ludicrous. What is with this new thing where we call death a "disease" anyways? A disease implies that getting rid of it is a good thing. It's sneaking a very controversial statement (dying should be eradicated) into the post.

melling 4y ago
As I stated 6 years ago, we aren’t likely to “cure death” anytime soon. So, rather than run into the weeds and wax philosophical, maybe we can give it a good effort “Finally, let’s not delude ourselves into thinking that death is going to be an easy disease to cure. Maybe we’ll get a few breakthroughs over the next couple of decades and we’ll figure out how to add a few extra healthy years to the average person. We definitely need to move beyond long term studies and peer deeper into our bodies.”