Buddha would advise that as the root cause of suffering is identification of mind with a body this very desire is the essence of the ignorance leading to suffering. If you get attached to a body after 80 years, imagine after 800,000 years. Be careful what you wish for…
The Rich and Powerful Want to Live Forever. What If They Could?
111–120 of 139 posts
Re: The Rich and Powerful Want to Live Forever. What If They Could?
#112Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't quite get your position. On the one hand you say without death life would lack urgency, yet you seem to be open to life after death. If there was life after death... wouldn't it lack urgency? If there isn't life after death, you simply don't exist anymore and there are no more possibilities open to you. So I'd be more than happy to postpone finding about out for as long as possible.
Life without death would lack urgency. I do not know what happens when I die, ergo I am curious. Not mutually exclusive.
Thanks, I get it.
Re: The Rich and Powerful Want to Live Forever. What If They Could?
#113Earlier quoted context omitted.
and you would be ok with an immortal class of tech overlords? history ending with one of the worst sets of ppl of our generation?
Mmmm. Not just the worst from a moral perspective - which is still bad! - but also some of the dumbest . Ours are not the Masters of Industry from the Industrial Age[1], or the fission-missile-kings of the Nuclear Age. They're not ready to teach a Physics unit at a community college. The tippity top of the uber-wealthy today are remarkably short on actual formal knowledge. This makes sense in their ideological system…
90% seems high. I think there’s a solid chunk of the HN population that is very aware that this industry is run by morons. I, for example, only came to this realization a few years ago. But I believe it’s a growing sentiment. Late stage capitalism / techno feudalism really is a trip.
Re: The Rich and Powerful Want to Live Forever. What If They Could?
#114If they use immortality. Just use Magic. Putinius Disintegratus! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snipex_Alligator Poof ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Looks like I’m going to avoid drinking tea in the foreseeable future.
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Re: The Rich and Powerful Want to Live Forever. What If They Could?
#115Earlier quoted context omitted.
Looking at heads of states in non-western countries I'm not sure why you think it's a western thing. African countries got multiple 90+ year olds as head of state for example.
name 3?
I might've been exaggerating a bit, there's only one right now who's 90+, Paul Biya. Peter Mutharika will be 90+ when he steps down. Beji Esseni was 92 a few years ago. Many are 80+ and will not step down before dying
Re: The Rich and Powerful Want to Live Forever. What If They Could?
#116[flagged]
If you've read the site guidelines (https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html), it should be clear that comments like this one—indignant, generic, and fulminant—violate the intended use of the site. Please don't do this here.
Thoughtful critique is fine, of course.
Re: The Rich and Powerful Want to Live Forever. What If They Could?
#117Gonna go out on a limb here and say that old age and dying are actually good, and that many of the problems in Western society are due to people living too long and holding onto power longer than they should / not passing on power and resources to younger generations.
> longer than they should Just great. And who is to decide how long is "too long"? You?
Please don't conduct cross-examinations or otherwise be aggressive in HN threads. It's against the intended spirit of the site.
If you'd please review https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and stick to the rules when posting here, we'd appreciate it.
Re: The Rich and Powerful Want to Live Forever. What If They Could?
#118Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't know what's behind a wall I'm sitting next to right now, but I'm reasonably sure there's a street. I'm also reasonably sure the comment about "you've been dead" is also a very accurate prediction.
That wall is concrete and material. Death is not so much. I am reasonably sure you can do that with great accuracy while still having zero idea what lies in wait for us after we die. A false equivalence.
> concrete and material
Are as abstract as death. Names that we use to label certain phenomenon. You need more to demonstrate that the equivalence is false here.
Re: The Rich and Powerful Want to Live Forever. What If They Could?
#119Gonna go out on a limb here and say that old age and dying are actually good, and that many of the problems in Western society are due to people living too long and holding onto power longer than they should / not passing on power and resources to younger generations.
Hey now, don't crush my dreams of biological immortality! That being said, if the average lifespan continues to increase then we will have to consider rethinking the current social order. Right now we place seniority/experience at the top of what we consider socially useful in a person, but it's already clear that the effects of gerontocracy are hurting the average person in the US and other countries. Should these p…
Nitpicking but early 60s still seems perfectly fine? I’d start the offramping between 66 - 70. Fully pass the baton by 70, basically.
Re: The Rich and Powerful Want to Live Forever. What If They Could?
#120Earlier quoted context omitted.
I’ll answer that question for you for free. Here’s what happens:
I medically died a couple years back. I don’t remember a thing, so perhaps you are right. Still curious.
I've had procedures at the hospital two ways...
One is general anaesthesia, where you are "out"
The other is with something like fentanyl where you could have a whole conversation during the procedure, but when you finish the procedure, you don't remember it.
The experience afterwards is pretty much identical, but philosophically both seem very different.