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I can't believe no one thinks this is a terrible idea. Of course I, selfishly, would love to live longer but doing so on a large scale is almost guaranteed to

I can't believe no one thinks this is a terrible idea. Of course I, selfishly, would love to live longer but doing so on a large scale is almost guaranteed to be a disaster. While we're at it why don't we just solve aging, provide infinite food supply, and eliminate predation for deer. That would be a great idea right? No way that would have any negative side effects, right?

Ilverin 12y ago
"doing so on a large scale is almost guaranteed to be a disaster" Over the past centuries, human life expectancy has increased greatly and yet we have a much higher quality of life. It's an extraordinary claim to suggest that the continuance of this already-existing trend is 'almost guaranteed to be a disaster'.
- adrianlmm 12y ago
  >we have a much higher quality Who is we?
- tmuir 12y ago
  The decline of global pirate population has correlated strongly with the rise of global temperatures, too.
  - SwellJoe 12y ago
    While the pirate population might have something to do with the price of tea in China, it has nothing to do with this conversation. The comment you replied to did not make a correlation=causation argument. The comment did, however, make an argument that historic behavior, in this case of society as a whole, may be used to predict future behavior. I don't believe that is an entirely unreasonable argument to make (though more data from more fields is always better). It is certainly a stronger argument than was made by the previous comment, which provided no evidence to back the assertion that it would be a disaster.
- eagsalazar2 12y ago
  Human longevity (and population) isn't just about us, it is about the impact on our environment which is turning out, already to be an unqualified disaster for our planet. Also, if you count only people who reached adulthood and eliminate early deaths from injury which were common in adults between 25-45 yrs old, life expectancy and height are only now catching back up to the paleolithic.
- jqm 12y ago
  well, to be fair, if not an outright disaster, we are creating a bit of mess with so many people at this standard of living...
radicalbyte 12y ago
Extending human life span to 200 years would be the single biggest thing you could do to combat global warming..
mikerichards 12y ago
I can't believe no one thinks this is a terrible idea I don't what comments you're reading, but as usual with topics of this nature on HN, the comments are sadly negative.
reasonattlm 12y ago
Everyone who thinks that curing aging is a terrible idea should, in detail, outline the problems they foresee being worse than more than 100,000 painful, drawn-out deaths every day, along with a continuing population of hundreds of millions suffering continually from the most terrible and limiting conditions. http://www.nickbostrom.com/fable/dragon.html http://www.nickbostrom.com/fable/dragon.html "Once upon a time, the planet was tyrannized by a giant dragon. The dragon stood taller than the largest cathedral, and it was covered with thick black scales. Its red eyes glowed with hate, and from its terrible jaws flowed an incessant stream of evil-smelling yellowish-green slime. It demanded from humankind a blood-curdling tribute: to satisfy its enormous appetite, ten thousand men and women had to be delivered every evening at the onset of dark to the foot of the mountain where the dragon-tyrant lived. Sometimes the dragon would devour these unfortunate souls upon arrival; sometimes again it would lock them up in the mountain where they would wither away for months or years before eventually being consumed."
biomimic 12y ago
You are essentially also saying "I do not want to make more money because I'll have to pay more taxes" Birds are also the only ones that should be flying.

Ilverin 12y ago

"doing so on a large scale is almost guaranteed to be a disaster" Over the past centuries, human life expectancy has increased greatly and yet we have a much higher quality of life. It's an extraordinary claim to suggest that the continuance of this already-existing trend is 'almost guaranteed to be a disaster'.

adrianlmm 12y ago
>we have a much higher quality Who is we?
tmuir 12y ago
The decline of global pirate population has correlated strongly with the rise of global temperatures, too.
- SwellJoe 12y ago
  While the pirate population might have something to do with the price of tea in China, it has nothing to do with this conversation. The comment you replied to did not make a correlation=causation argument. The comment did, however, make an argument that historic behavior, in this case of society as a whole, may be used to predict future behavior. I don't believe that is an entirely unreasonable argument to make (though more data from more fields is always better). It is certainly a stronger argument than was made by the previous comment, which provided no evidence to back the assertion that it would be a disaster.
eagsalazar2 12y ago
Human longevity (and population) isn't just about us, it is about the impact on our environment which is turning out, already to be an unqualified disaster for our planet. Also, if you count only people who reached adulthood and eliminate early deaths from injury which were common in adults between 25-45 yrs old, life expectancy and height are only now catching back up to the paleolithic.
jqm 12y ago
well, to be fair, if not an outright disaster, we are creating a bit of mess with so many people at this standard of living...

radicalbyte 12y ago

Extending human life span to 200 years would be the single biggest thing you could do to combat global warming..

mikerichards 12y ago

I can't believe no one thinks this is a terrible idea I don't what comments you're reading, but as usual with topics of this nature on HN, the comments are sadly negative.

reasonattlm 12y ago

Everyone who thinks that curing aging is a terrible idea should, in detail, outline the problems they foresee being worse than more than 100,000 painful, drawn-out deaths every day, along with a continuing population of hundreds of millions suffering continually from the most terrible and limiting conditions. http://www.nickbostrom.com/fable/dragon.html http://www.nickbostrom.com/fable/dragon.html "Once upon a time, the planet was tyrannized by a giant dragon. The dragon stood taller than the largest cathedral, and it was covered with thick black scales. Its red eyes glowed with hate, and from its terrible jaws flowed an incessant stream of evil-smelling yellowish-green slime. It demanded from humankind a blood-curdling tribute: to satisfy its enormous appetite, ten thousand men and women had to be delivered every evening at the onset of dark to the foot of the mountain where the dragon-tyrant lived. Sometimes the dragon would devour these unfortunate souls upon arrival; sometimes again it would lock them up in the mountain where they would wither away for months or years before eventually being consumed."

biomimic 12y ago

You are essentially also saying "I do not want to make more money because I'll have to pay more taxes" Birds are also the only ones that should be flying.