Comments on: Before I Die, I Hope I Get Old

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By: “The key to living a long time” « FOREVER-Newsblog

“The key to living a long time” « FOREVER-Newsblog — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 19:02:49 +0000

[...] Munkittrick in a blog entry on discovermagazine.com about an interview of author Ted C. Fishman who has just published his new [...]

By: Kyle Munkittrick

Kyle Munkittrick — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 15:52:28 +0000

@Megan:

1. I think it’s something like a paradox caused by the cogito. Try to imagine the self not existing. It’s weird to think, “what will it be when I am not?” And, in all honesty, immortality isn’t quite what I’m worried about at the moment. I’d just like an extra century or two.

2. Most discussions of longevity in the transhumanist context involve preventing aging and preserving wellness. Therefore, initially, the treatments would just prevent further deterioration and damage, but with the hope that as we come to better understand aging, we can repair the damage already caused.

3. Ever heard the phrase “If I knew when I was 20 what I knew now, I would have…” ? Imagine being able to, at the drop of a hat, restart your life on a new path, because you know you still have the time and energy to completely reinvent yourself. People would just shift their goals. Instead of mastering one instrument, musicians would endeavor to master the whole orchestra. Boredom is a state of mind, as it were.

4. Immortality gets thrown around a lot, but the proper phrasing would be “super longevity.” You’d still be mortal to gun shots and fatal diseases and everything else, but your body wouldn’t be the cause. No one would die of “natural causes.” Furthermore, as most diseases are age-related (think about how many problems set in after 30, after 40, after 50, etc.) keeping the body in a youthful state would prevent a huge number of complications. The body would be mortal, just with no built in expiration date.

By: jld

jld — Sun, 07 Nov 2010 18:39:20 +0000

A really, really silly title!!!

+@megan
Why do we obsess about this is the first place? Is our fear of death the fear of cessation, the fear of the metaphysical condition of nonexistence?

How old are you?
Death isn’t the problem, decay is the problem…

By: Megan

Megan — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 17:31:42 +0000

1. Why do we obsess about this is the first place? Is our fear of death the fear of cessation, the fear of the metaphysical condition of nonexistence? The permanency of it all? Would the permanency of immortality be not equally as frightening?
2. If one was granted immortality at a certain age, would they remain that age forever (i.e. reach cruising speed at age of immortality)? Or would the mind and body continue to degenerate?
3. (Based on #2) There are two models of boredom here: if you reach cruising speed, stages of life would be impossible. Everything that could happen, every thought or experience you could have, would happen. Thus you would become detached on account of the ceaseless repetition of old experience. Or… you could continue to develop and change, i.e. not remain impervious to change, and face the fact that eventually you will run out of steam and become a festering vegetable, albeit a living one.
4. Does immortality necessarily mean [infinitely ~dead], or could one who is immortal be subject to disease or accident (therefore not de facto immortal, yet manage to dodge disease/accident infinitely)? In this vision of immortality there is no guarantee of immortality… the future is in your hands, sort of. This is arguably a better model; you aren’t necessarily strapped in for the (infinitely) long haul… you can pull the plug, if need be.

Thoughts, Kyle?

By: Bigby

Bigby — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 14:44:45 +0000

Let’s not forget the critical longevity factor of choosing the correct parents.