101–110 of 154 posts
If you're curious to learn more, look into cold blooded vs warm blooded animals and longevity. Cold blooded animals might give us hints to slow aging in humans. Energy expenditure might be related to longevity. Eating more and exercising more (and the energy required to keep your core temperature up) might kill you faster, maybe through free radical production from metabolism.
> Buffalofish can go decades between successful reproductions because they require very specific environmental conditions—most of which are still unknown—to procreate. That’s why the fish evolved to live so long: It’s an evolutionary adaptation to account for long periods without breeding, according to Lackmann. This reminds me of "The Fable of the Dragon-Tyrant" by Nick Bostrom [1]. Senescence is engraved in our bra…
I think Altered Carbon brought up the most chilling view of a world without death. In that exploration only the rich are immortal, because the poor can’t afford immortality. Someone being rich for hundreds of years will only cement their their power, position, and their perspective. How do we feel if Rockefeller were still alive and powerful? What if our old kings never died? If any of them had a sexual perversion, w…
because eventually, a child of a tyrant will be born that will be even greater than the original, and overthrow them
nature always builds in enough checks and balances to keep the wheel spinning, even if a revolution can sometimes take >75 years
Earlier quoted context omitted.
In a rather unpopular opinion, I think most people are more of a product of their environments than we like to believe. If you look at the rate at which social change happens and public opinion about certain topics, it happens much faster than new generations replace the old. A good example of this is with same-sex marriage. Opinion changed rapidly and I'm sure many have even forgot all the things said before Obergef…
This is so incorrect it's laughable. If you look at the data, public opinion in america has changed almost exactly in step with new generations emerging and old generations dying. People almost never change their opinion on political issues, they just die.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is the premise of In Time (film) too.
I've heard that "In Time" was ripped off from "Repent Harlequin Said The Tictockman" ( https://www.d.umn.edu/~tbacig/cst1010/chs/ellison.html ). It's worth the 5 minutes it should take to read it, even if you take 6 ;)
"I'm writing this slow, because I know you can't read fast..."
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think Altered Carbon brought up the most chilling view of a world without death. In that exploration only the rich are immortal, because the poor can’t afford immortality. Someone being rich for hundreds of years will only cement their their power, position, and their perspective. How do we feel if Rockefeller were still alive and powerful? What if our old kings never died? If any of them had a sexual perversion, w…
Why specifically point out a sexual perversion. It seems like the least of the bad things an authority figure like a king could do.
Imagine a magenta, glitter-covered pony hoof stamping on a human face, forever.
> Buffalofish can go decades between successful reproductions because they require very specific environmental conditions—most of which are still unknown—to procreate. That’s why the fish evolved to live so long: It’s an evolutionary adaptation to account for long periods without breeding, according to Lackmann. This reminds me of "The Fable of the Dragon-Tyrant" by Nick Bostrom [1]. Senescence is engraved in our bra…
If animals which do not have many offspring did not live very long, they would have gone extinct already.
> Buffalofish can go decades between successful reproductions because they require very specific environmental conditions—most of which are still unknown—to procreate. That’s why the fish evolved to live so long: It’s an evolutionary adaptation to account for long periods without breeding, according to Lackmann. This reminds me of "The Fable of the Dragon-Tyrant" by Nick Bostrom [1]. Senescence is engraved in our bra…
I think Altered Carbon brought up the most chilling view of a world without death. In that exploration only the rich are immortal, because the poor can’t afford immortality. Someone being rich for hundreds of years will only cement their their power, position, and their perspective. How do we feel if Rockefeller were still alive and powerful? What if our old kings never died? If any of them had a sexual perversion, w…
> Buffalofish can go decades between successful reproductions because they require very specific environmental conditions—most of which are still unknown—to procreate. That’s why the fish evolved to live so long: It’s an evolutionary adaptation to account for long periods without breeding, according to Lackmann. This reminds me of "The Fable of the Dragon-Tyrant" by Nick Bostrom [1]. Senescence is engraved in our bra…
I think Altered Carbon brought up the most chilling view of a world without death. In that exploration only the rich are immortal, because the poor can’t afford immortality. Someone being rich for hundreds of years will only cement their their power, position, and their perspective. How do we feel if Rockefeller were still alive and powerful? What if our old kings never died? If any of them had a sexual perversion, w…
Also, once the technology of immortality becomes well-characterized, the cost to replicate the procedures will go down barring price-fixing collusion that involves government regulatory bodies. This is the real problem with movies like Elysium: a version of the cure-all hospital bed that serves as the movie's McGuffin in a critique of capitalism would, in a free market, be readily available at Target or Costco; businesses would rent them like tanning beds; and charities would pop up to provide them at gyms and homeless shelters for those who still couldn't afford one of their own. You couldn't really restrict the availability of something like that to just the rich without the government putting their thumb on the scale somewhere. In fact the rich would respond by allowing themselves to grow old and decrepit; in a world where everybody could be restored to health and vigor, aging would be taken as a status symbol. Kinda like how in a world where photography became easy, having original paintings on your wall is a status symbol.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think Altered Carbon brought up the most chilling view of a world without death. In that exploration only the rich are immortal, because the poor can’t afford immortality. Someone being rich for hundreds of years will only cement their their power, position, and their perspective. How do we feel if Rockefeller were still alive and powerful? What if our old kings never died? If any of them had a sexual perversion, w…
I wonder if people really would ossify after hundreds of years or eventually learn to be hyper-adaptable. Current centenarians are a bad example, because their brains and bodies are falling apart. Some sci fi suggests that the fact of our living and dying in just one century means we die as immature children. Maybe it takes a thousand years or ten thousand years to “know thyself” to any useful degree.
I'm kind of fond of Vernor Vinge's take in Rainbows End: people who undergo rejuvenation therapy go back to high school to learn a trade in the modern world. Part of the justification for this is if their brain is restored from a condition like severe dementia, they may have different personality traits and interests from their original selves, which will take time and learning to acclimate to.
If you're curious to learn more, look into cold blooded vs warm blooded animals and longevity. Cold blooded animals might give us hints to slow aging in humans. Energy expenditure might be related to longevity. Eating more and exercising more (and the energy required to keep your core temperature up) might kill you faster, maybe through free radical production from metabolism.
As someone who only started to exercise in their mid thirties, the idea of living longer through not exercising is laughable. Even if it were true, I would rather live to 65 with an able body than to live to 90 not knowing what my body was capable of.
[1] https://www.cnn.com/2017/05/15/politics/donald-trump-exercis...