"In addition, if life expectancy suddenly got extended significantly, it would so completely and irrevocably change the way we think and act, that these parochial attitudes would be as obsolete as the dodo bird."
Exactly ! Talking about revolutions in thinking. The idea that death is good and necessary is so ingrained in many people that is not even a paradigm is some kind of mental block, a spell and sometime I think almost a form of mental illness (that was imposed on us by the social environment almost as a kind pollution). People don't even realize that the future will bring us many ways to enhance human life via augmentation so it is not just about keeping people young, vibrant, active but also improving intelligence, learning and even ethical standards. Even if these goals are not achieved in the immediate future they should be sought as ultimate fundamental rights. Death even "natural death" by aging (there is no such a thing really given that aging is a neglect by nature not something that is really programmed) is an imposition on the human spirit and it should be eliminated. This should be our highest goal. If you think correctly everything we do is an effort to push away death. When you eat, sleep and so on you do it to preserve your well being. The entire field of medicine is devoted to this effort even if there are few doctors that explicitly understand that the ultimate goal is not to defeat this or that illness but death itself. Even in medical doctor the mental illness of deathism is too ingrained for them to understand what is the ultimate consequence of their profession. There have been many studies showing that extending lives is actually a powerful economic buster and in fact actually a solution to overpopulation given that long lives in almost every country correlates with lower birth rates. The countries that contribute most to population growths are the poor countries with very short average life spans. But radical life extension would bring the most profound revolution ever in our way to think about ourselves and the universe. It would make us dream big and make us project our life over time scales where almost anything could be achieved both at the individual and social level. So please dream big and leave behind this incredible mental prison that is the idea that death is good and necessary. On Fri, May 15, 2015 at 11:43 AM, Randy Wuller <rwul...@freeark.com> wrote: > Blaze: > > > > I agree. In addition, if life expectancy suddenly got extended > significantly, it would so completely and irrevocably change the way we > think and act, that these parochial attitudes would be as obsolete as the > dodo bird. They would be replaced by a whole new set of behavior. It is > amazing to me how people extrapolate certain societal characteristics to > new paradigms without understanding that the paradigm itself would alter > things irrevocably. > > > > > > > > *From:* Blaze Spinnaker [mailto:blazespinna...@gmail.com] > *Sent:* Friday, May 15, 2015 9:40 AM > *To:* vortex-l@eskimo.com > *Subject:* Re: [Vo]:OT fountain of youth? > > > > Geez, that's pretty grim! Are you a part of some death cult? > > > > There's a lot of great ways a law respecting society can ensure a fresh > evolution of ideas. Death doesn't have to be one of them. > > > > On Thu, May 14, 2015 at 7:26 PM, Jed Rothwell <jedrothw...@gmail.com> > wrote: > > Giovanni Santostasi <gsantost...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > > We the death of each individual an irreplaceable world is lost. In > particular when we are talking about creative and productive people that > could contribute for centuries to the better of mankind. > > > > Yeah? What makes you think the creative productive people would be > preserved? No way! It would be the wealthy and brutal people. If we had > this in the 20th century, Stalin would still be in charge of Russia. J. > Gould and the other robber barons would still be running Wall Street. The > Kim family would run North Korea forever. > > > > In cold fusion, opponents such as Huizenga would make policy for the next > 500 years, and they would never allow research. Young people would never be > able to contribute, or even grow up. Even James Watt became an impediment > to progress at the end of his life. > > > > Death leads to turnover. It gives young people with fresh perspectives a > chance. Most great science is done by young people. If the old scientists > never get out the way, new ideas will never be published. > > > > I agree with Max Planck. Death is sad for the individual, but it is a > blessing to society, and it is essential. > > > > - Jed > > > > >
