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Wow these comments are depressing here. Of course I want to live as long as possible! Because life is awesome! I want more of it! The fear of death is of cour

• olalonde 2y ago
  I think it's a bit similar to the deaf community hating on hearing aids or bald people hating on hair transplants. Psychologically, it's challenging to accept certain conditions, so our brains create rationalizations as a defense mechanism. Similarly, with death, we have no option but to accept it (at least for now), and so we develop rationalizations to convince ourselves that it's actually desirable.
  • keiferski 2y ago
    No, it’s not similar at all. The modern technological world has a certain approach to the individual Self and its experience of the world - it ought to be focused on almost to the exclusion of anything else. Nothing else ultimately matters, as long as your personal life experience continues - is what this philosophy ultimates boils down to. Other people, in other places, value different things. Merely existing as long as possible is not their primary goal. And in fact, the lack of such ways to “use” one’s life and death in a meaningful way other than simply existing is one major cause of the modern malaise affecting many developed nations. To live and die for a purpose other than extending your own personal experience is something many people hunger for in current times.
    • olalonde 2y ago
      I personally wouldn't embrace that philosophy but if we solve death by aging, "dying for a purpose" would still be an option: suicide, accidents, etc.
      • keiferski 2y ago
        I agree but I am responding mostly to the parent comment, which suggests that not trying to live as long as possible is some sort of disorder or disability.
        • deleted 2y ago
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        • satvikpendem 2y ago
          That is not what they are suggesting though. They are simply making an analogy to a very real phenomenon in the deaf community. That they are deaf or are disabled is incidental, it could be any sort of community where they make rationalizations and then hate those who shatter their beliefs.
    • DennisP 2y ago
      The desire for immortality goes back at least as far as the epic of Gilgamesh. Medieval alchemists tried to achieve it. In China, Daoists attempted to dramatically lengthen their lives by various esoteric means. Tibetan Buddhism also has practices along these lines. Conversely, in today's world plenty of people would like to lengthen their lives, without that being their primary goal. Just because someone wants to live longer does not mean that it's the only thing they care about; it's even possible that some larger purpose is a major reason they want to live longer. From a Buddhist perspective, "if you are a practitioner of the Dharma, someone who is putting the teachings into practice, there is great significance to doing long-life practice." https://www.rigpawiki.org/index.php?title=Long_life_practice https://www.rigpawiki.org/index.php?title=Long_life_practice
  • 8372049 2y ago
    The primary reason the Deaf community "hates on hearing aids" is mostly because it comes at the expense of sign language. If you're deaf and live in a Deaf community (i.e. with sign language), you will function normally in virtually every way. If you're deaf and live in a hearing community with hearing aids, you'll be forever impaired. With hearing aids and/or CI you will still be hard of hearing, you will still struggle with group conversations, at the beach or in a swimming pool, in noisy environments and so on. Secondly, the Deaf community strongly objects to the notion that lack of hearing is a handicap and instead consider it a cultural difference. Somehow, when (we) hearing people think of the deaf we consider it a disability to e.g. have to use a vibrating wakeup alarm, but we don't consider our own inability to fall asleep in a noisy place a disability. (For reference, deaf=impaired hearing, Deaf=sign language user)
    • olalonde 2y ago
      My comparison was aimed at your second point. Deaf people not considering it as a disability is a coping mechanism. If there was a cure for deafness, nearly all deaf people would take it and conversely, almost no one intentionally seeks to become deaf (of course, there are exceptions).
      • keiferski 2y ago
        It is not as simple as you're suggesting here. Deaf people have their own culture and language, and while it is built on a lack of something considered normal by others, that doesn't mean it's inherently just a disability that would / should be eliminated unquestionably. Consider a similar example: if immigrant parents could instantly make their children forget their native languages and learn English fluently, many would choose to do so – as it would give the children more economic/social advantages. And yet I don't think we really want to say that not doing that, and instead retaining the native language and culture, would be a coping mechanism. Culture and disability is a really complicated thing and deaf culture specifically should not be brushed away as just a coping mechanism. (Side note: I am deaf in one ear and agree with the commenter above that it's actually a benefit for going to sleep, but of course this isn't considered a benefit by society at large.)
  • greenthrow 2y ago
    I thought everybidy hated on hair transplants because they look like doll's hair and are distractingly terrible?
    • seper8 2y ago
      Hair transplants are your own hairs...
      • greenthrow 2y ago
        Everybody knows that. It still looks like doll hair because of the pattern of the implants.
    • olalonde 2y ago
      I'm quite happy with mine[0]. People don't notice unless they knew me before. [0] https://i.postimg.cc/13tjX46q/before-after-hair-transplant.png https://i.postimg.cc/13tjX46q/before-after-hair-transplant.p...
  • elzbardico 2y ago
    A lot of what we call "The X community" is just a portion of a said larger group that is incredibly vocal and politically organized.
  • lynx23 2y ago
    Dont forget blind people "hating" on bionic eyes and similar nonesense. And no, you haven't understood the underlying issue at all. All you can do is claim a minority group isn't quite in their right mind, thats pretty sad to read. Maybe you can read up on Ableism, but thats not the whole story. Tech based implants are very poor quality-wise. Bionic eyes have a few hundred pixels across, and hearing implants sound quite harsh and unnatural. What those minority groups are "hating" on (what a strange way to put it) is them being forced into this, without seeing a lot of gain. I am blind 45 years now. If someone would force me into a bionic eye, I would need the next 10 to 20 years at least to learn basic reading. I'd have to start at the very basics, and its likely too late for me to adapt to the visual world. My way of dealing with things, as a native blind man, is superior to every technology you undisabled people can give me. And if I decline, you say I am hating on technology. This is soooooooo fucked up, you have no idea.
    • olalonde 2y ago
      You misunderstood my point. I was doing an analogy between three cases (deafness, baldness and death) where a real solution does not exist or if it exists, it is imperfect or not available to all. For example, hearing implants aren't a perfect solution and won't help much in cases of extreme hearing loss. I imagine they're also a bit inconvenient. Similarly for baldness, hair transplants aren't always an option due to cost or insufficient quantity of hair in the donor area. So what happens is that those who aren't eligible for a solution often tell themselves that a hypothetical solution isn't even desirable at all, as a way to cope. This is where I was making the analogy with people praising death in these threads. My contention is that they're just rationalizing to deal with the fact that death is indeed inevitable, for now. By "hate" what I really meant was that a subset of those who aren't eligible for a solution will "hate" those who are, because they are a reminder that their situation isn't actually desirable. I really should have wrote "deaf community hating on people with hearing aids or bald people hating on people with hair transplants." In your case, it seems you acknowledge that an actual cure would be nice, but such a cure doesn't exist right now. I feel similarly towards death. I'm not about to do monthly "young blood transfusions" to gain a year or two of life but I acknowledge that a real cure would be nice. PS: I absolutely meant no disrespect and understand that it's perfectly possible to live a good life as blind or deaf person.
• trueismywork 2y ago
  "Your" life is awesome.
• pineaux 2y ago
  Yeah, I agree with you. I want all those things and would try to attain them if possible. But I also think it's selfish and "not how it works". I think people are not really made for adapting such a long time. I also think the generations after you would want to own a part of your ecological niche to live in themselves. You might be looking over your shoulder the whole time.
  • chr1 2y ago
    Well, if people live for really long time like 10000, it would become much easier to travel to other stars with technology that we already have, so there will be plenty of "ecological niche to live in".
    • darkerside 2y ago
      Would it really be much easier? It's already possible, we just would have new generations on the ship when we arrive. We don't care enough about those future generations to take off for a new world today. Will we care more about our own 10000 year futures?
      • chr1 2y ago
        Passing down skills and ideas needed for the mission to survive and succeed over multiple generations is a very hard task. A group of skilled and motivated people who spend a small percentage of their lives on a ship, is going to be very different from a group that is trapped in a small town for generations. My estimate would be that the mission to succeed is going to need 10-100x more people on generational ship compared to a transport ship. (million vs tens of thousands.)
    • reginald78 2y ago
      Generation ships could do that without being staffed with immortals.
  • terryf 2y ago
    Yes, it is a bit selfish. But it is also okay to be a bit selfish from time to time. After all, it is your life. Of course, this needs to be carefully balanced. But doing things every now and then just because you want to, is okay. However the "not how it works" comment ... well, you could make that pretty much throughout the time that humans have lived. We have been continuously changing the environment around us to suit our needs and wants. Early farmers burned down forests to get fertilized land. We domesticated crops and animals and bred them to grow the way we wanted them. We built things to make life safer, better and easier. You could say "that's not how it works" about a tractor or wheat with multiple stems from a single seed. But of course, there will be problems that need to be overcome if we ever do figure out ways of extending life. But again, there always have been problems with new inventions. I firmly believe that humanity has the ability to overcome problems, develop, learn and improve. And that aligns well with wanting more life!
• YurgenJurgensen 2y ago
  You have only considered the consequences of you living forever. It wouldn’t just be you, it’d be everyone. Well, more likely, it’d just be the rich, and you’d just have to hope you’re rich enough to afford it. And good luck with social mobility in a world where the ‘generational wealth’ doesn’t need the ‘generational’ part. You’ll find that an internship at a company with the potential to eventually give a high-paying job in a few decades needs 80 years of experience, three PhDs and a personal recommendation letter from at least one legendary figure just to make it to interview because you’re competing in a job market with immortals. This feels similar to the people who advocate for dictatorships because they picture themselves as the dictators, and end up having their faces eaten by leopards. Statistically, you’re overwhelmingly likely to not end up in the elite in this new deathless world.
  • terryf 2y ago
    I'm certainly not part of the elite even in the current deathful world :) And yes, of course there will be issues, difficult ones. But life is, was and will always be filled with difficulty, obstacles, struggles and failures. Mine certainly is. However, I believe in progress and overcoming obstacles and I believe that if we ever manage to extend life, we will figure out ways to make it work. There is a lot of talk how finding jobs is more difficult these days if you are young and do not have experience. That real-estate is so expensive that nobody is able to afford it. And I'm sure it's true. But I also see a lot of young people succeeding and thriving in ways that I could not even have thought of. Therefore, I think there is reason to believe that the next generation will be able to find a way to make it work. As has every generation before. When I was younger I used to think that situations in the world are now radically different from what the previous generation had to deal with. And on the first level of abstraction, they are! Computers did not exist for the generation before me. So of course it was new. However, that is just the first level of abstraction. Take the second level of abstraction and you can look back and identify things that are completely new for each new generation. I mean, how different was the concept of going to work in a factory with a loom from the previous generation where machines did not exist at all!
    • mathgeek 2y ago
• nine_k 2y ago
  «Maturity is when the thoughts of mortality stop to evoke fear and start to induce moderate optimism.» «I'm not afraid of dying, I'm afraid of dying pointlessly.» (Don't remember the attribution.)
• deleted 2y ago
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