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Monday was my 46th birthday and likely my last (2013)

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Re: Monday was my 46th birthday and likely my last (2013)

#101

Post by xvector »

gonehome wrote: post #61
kelnos wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's fair; you are of course welcome to your own views on life and death. But I don't think there's a "we", here. Some people are accepting of death, and aren't interested in the idea of immortality, or even a significant amount of life extension. Others... are. Neither viewpoint is wrong, or bad. I don't think I'd want to live forever, but I think the time we get is far too short. I want to see an end to scarcity…

I think a lot about Alcor too - I think it's probably worth doing. Hopefully you can get someone you care about to do it too. In the unlikely event it does work, there'd at least be a handful of people - it'd be pretty unlikely to be the only success story I think. Downside risk seems small?

Downside is virtually nonexistent if you can afford it. The upside is potentially everything.

Re: Monday was my 46th birthday and likely my last (2013)

#103

Post by Yuioup »

happytoexplain wrote: post #12
javert wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I didn't find the question to be rude.

"OK, but why now" can be rude in certain contexts, especially sensitive ones like this, but the ellipses push it over the edge into "definitely has a rude tone" (which maybe they did not intend, but I'm only explaining what creates a rude tone in the written word).

Oh sorry. Didn't mean to be rude. Just wondering why a post from 2013 was put up on HN.

Apologies.

Re: Monday was my 46th birthday and likely my last (2013)

#104

Post by joelbluminator »

xvector wrote: post #96
joelbluminator wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Its not really a problem to solve. Its a pretty much guaranteed end we can only delay by so much.

When we are looking at deaths on the cosmic timescales you're implying, we can return to that point. For now, our lifespans are pathetically short. Don't let perfect be the enemy of good.

> For now, our lifespans are pathetically short.

If you count healthy years I agree, sometimes it's too little for certain people. But in general 90 years seems like more than enough to me, what would you want to accomplish you couldn't in the 70 years form your 20s to your 90s? People peak quite early. Also seeing your values, beliefs and lifestyles being ridiculed by the new generations isn't that much fun...who knows how people 80 years from now will view our generation that messed up the climate (and countless other things we do now that we think are normal but are really not). Probably how we now see slave owners.

It's mostly about our fear of dying, I'm sure when the average life span becomes 120 or 200 everyone will yell it's too damn short. If you're scared of dying your'e scared of dying, in fact the more you fight it with treatments probably the more scared you become.

Re: Monday was my 46th birthday and likely my last (2013)

#105

Post by xvector »

DoreenMichele wrote: post #99
xvector wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I think if you offered immortality to me tomorrow I wouldn't take it. I think if we offered it to you on your deathbed, as you are seconds away from it, you would.

Only if it cured what ailed me. I would personally be skeptical of such an offer. I would think "Yeah. Sure. And live like this forever without relief or escape. No thanks, buddy." Not everyone frames such problems the same.

To be clear, I'm not discussing a "monkey's paw" sort of scenario, but a legitimate good-faith offer of immortality.

A cure for your ailment is almost certainly implied by an offer of immortality. If we are capable of such a feat we will almost certainly have solved the problem of making humans youthful and healthy indefinitely.

And realistically speaking, death would still be optional, just not forced upon you and your hopes and dreams by random ailments.

Re: Monday was my 46th birthday and likely my last (2013)

#107

Post by [deleted] »

xvector wrote: post #105
DoreenMichele wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Only if it cured what ailed me. I would personally be skeptical of such an offer. I would think "Yeah. Sure. And live like this forever without relief or escape. No thanks, buddy." Not everyone frames such problems the same.

To be clear, I'm not discussing a "monkey's paw" sort of scenario, but a legitimate good-faith offer of immortality. A cure for your ailment is almost certainly implied by an offer of immortality. If we are capable of such a feat we will almost certainly have solved the problem of making humans youthful and healthy indefinitely. And realistically speaking, death would still be optional, just not forced upon you and y…

[deleted]

Re: Monday was my 46th birthday and likely my last (2013)

#108

Post by xvector »

ChrisArchitect wrote: post #106

Anything new to add to this? Previous discussion (as noted in this comment https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28150698 ): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5893505

I see a lot of cool discussion about whether death itself is worth solving, that wasn't really present in the previous thread. Likely because awareness about such efforts in culture has really skyrocketed since the previous thread.

It is interesting and valuable to see new discussion threads emerge over the course of almost a decade, as culture changes and the lens through which we view our lives and problems evolves.

Re: Monday was my 46th birthday and likely my last (2013)

#109

Post by TedDoesntTalk »

whytaka wrote: post #57
TedDoesntTalk wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Raising a child by being a father is a much larger achievement than writing any software. I’d say the same if you mentioned someone like Linus Torvalds.

Does Linus even have children? I don’t know cause I never cared what he did in that area of his life. It has never affected me certainly. I am certainly in awe of his accomplishments with Linux/git though.

Don’t know. But I think that misses the point.

Re: Monday was my 46th birthday and likely my last (2013)

#110

Post by mehwoot »

xvector wrote: post #100
mehwoot wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Neither viewpoint is wrong, or bad Actually I think trying to eliminate death (at least if we're talking about letting people live >1000 years or choose when they die) is extremely bad and will have awful, awful consequences. You think inequality is bad now? Can you imagine what it will be like when people can amass power and fortunes for thousands of years? How progressive do you think our views on race and sex woul…

1. These are problems to solve independently of death. Shitty governments and politics do not justify death. These problems absolutely aren't in the problem space of life extension to solve. 2. It is arguable that life and freedom are meaningless if we are doomed to lose everything we ever have and are in the end, after such a short amount of time. 3. "Enjoying life for the ephemeral experience it is" is something we…

"Enjoying life for the ephemeral experience it is" is something we do out of hard necessity.

But we don't do it. We sit here worrying about dying and trying to ensure we will live forever instead of enjoying the time we do have alive. Read experiences of people who suddenly find out they are going to die relatively soon- the richness of their life takes on a whole new dimension.

These are problems to solve independently of death.

And why do you have 100% faith they will be solved? Is that how the world generally tends to work? Or will things just get worse and people will blame it on the government instead of the thing that changed and allowed things to be bad?

This happens all the time. Technology comes in, makes peoples lives shit, "It's not a problem with the technology it's how we use it". What does that matter if we're not capable of using it better? If the world is going to be shit if people can live forever, then people living forever is shit.

It is arguable that life and freedom are meaningless if...

If you look at how people behave, it is actually the opposite- things don't have value unless they are scarce, limited. We value our life and youth because it runs out.

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