Laura Deming, founder of the Longevity Fund, on being homeschooled • Hacker News Board

Re: Laura Deming, founder of the Longevity Fund, on being homeschooled

#151

Post by barrkel » Thu, Jun 25, 2020, 10:47 PM UTC

philipkglass wrote: post #120

barrkel wrote: post #66

A lot of people talk about repairing decrepitude of the body, but what about decrepitude of ideas and world views? What if advancement depends on the death of people with outdated ideas?

About 0.7% of the American public dies each year: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/databriefs/db355.htm An idea that sees its support changing substantially faster than 0.7% per year is not primarily driven by older members of the public dying. The original Civil Rights movement, the fight for gay marriage, cannabis legalization -- all of these saw public acceptance shift much faster than population turnover can acc…

"Does Science Advance One Funeral at a Time?" - https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/aer.20161574

Another one is dictators. It seems like it took Franco's death for things to change in Spain, and Salazar's brain hemorrhage to change things in Portugal. Would Mubarak have been able to control the situation in Egypt if he was physically younger?

Re: Laura Deming, founder of the Longevity Fund, on being homeschooled

#152

Post by realtalk_sp » Thu, Jun 25, 2020, 10:48 PM UTC

lliamander wrote: post #147

realtalk_sp wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The only reason we exist is because our genes "wish" to remain immortal. Not dying is the fullest realization of our biological (and likely only empirically valid) purpose. Science also suggests that consciousness ceases with death. It seems strictly preferable to exist as opposed to not exist. Looked at this way, pursuing immortality is utterly rational. In fact, it's surprising this isn't our highest current priori…

"Genes" remaining immortal is quite distinct from an organism remaining immortal. I would say that death+reproduction is a better solution to preserving genes than immortality.

> I would say that death+reproduction is a better solution to preserving genes than immortality.

It's just the solution nature came up with. It's also optimal at a population level and far less so at the organism level.

Again: it is strictly preferable (by a very wide philosophical margin) to exist than to not exist. Of course, anyone who believes otherwise would be welcome to not participate in the concept of biological immortality.

Re: Laura Deming, founder of the Longevity Fund, on being homeschooled

#153

Post by concordDance » Thu, Jun 25, 2020, 10:55 PM UTC

scandox wrote: post #9

> But with longevity and other deeply existential problems, the horror of what’s happening has been tragically normalized. I will never understand this attitude. Why don't we see how valuable aging and death are? How can we possibly reframe this as a "horror". The horror is this idea that personal identity can go on indefinitely. Aging is a process of coming to terms with death. None of this is being "tragically norm…

Ageing in particular is hugely expensive (most medicine is spent on the old and the old cannot work effectively) and causes incalculably huge ammounts of suffering (COVID-19? War? Racist killings? Rape pandemics? Drug addiction? None cause as much suffering as ageing).

Is it wrong to repair someone's heart, brain, joints, skin, bones, kidneys, liver or muscles? If not, why is it wrong to prevent them degenerating in the first place?

Re: Laura Deming, founder of the Longevity Fund, on being homeschooled

#154

Post by TrackerFF » Thu, Jun 25, 2020, 10:56 PM UTC

tathougies wrote: post #138

TrackerFF wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I can’t believe we collectively accept children being exposed to the violence and other problems that are pervasive there! It’s not surprising so many people become criminals now. But on the flip-side, would you want to go your entire life without facing any conflicts? FWIW, I was bullied in middle school, and pretty much had to fight my way through. As in fist fighting. As an adult, I don't tolerate any bullshit -…

> But on the flip-side, would you want to go your entire life without facing any conflicts? This is a false dichotomy. It's not like you need to be exposed to drugs, violence, and sexual assault in order to 'face conflicts'. For 100% of children, simply disagreeing with a friend, fighting on the playground, etc is enough. Unfortunately, public school provides a lot of the former, and not exactly a lot of the latter.

I think the vast majority of public schools don't have any problems with drugs, violence, or sexual assaults. I went to a pretty low-tier HS, and we never had any of that. The same type of HS where only 5%-10% of students to to college.

But with that said - my initial thought is that at schools, at least you're forced to interact with people you may not want to interact with. Good or bad, at least it preps you for the professional work, where you can't choose the people you work with.

I can only imagine that going your whole (juvenile and young adult) life with the option of being 100% selective on who you interact with, must have some bearing on what kind of person you become as an adult.

I'm not saying that friends or family don't fight from time to time, but it's not really the same as dealing with strangers.

Re: Laura Deming, founder of the Longevity Fund, on being homeschooled

#155

Post by legitster » Thu, Jun 25, 2020, 10:58 PM UTC

Aperocky wrote: post #140

legitster wrote: post #51

I know a lot of homeschoolers. Some had great experiences. Some had truly terrible experiences. But regardless, they turned into functional, developed adults at about the same rate as publicly schooled kids. I think it's important for parents to realize that a lot of these choices are mostly about enjoyment and convenience, and they don't need to beat themselves up if they feel like they are failing because they can'…

> functional, developed adults at about the same rate This is the part where I'm going to need some academical research. I really don't know either way - but I wouldn't take your word for it (Of course you could be researching this subject for years but you have only presented me with anecdotal evidence, which can be explained by selection bias).

Absolutely. It's only relevant since the original article is more or less a single anecdote. So I figure the discussion is about sharing anecdotes.

Re: Laura Deming, founder of the Longevity Fund, on being homeschooled

#156

Post by nathanbarry » Thu, Jun 25, 2020, 10:58 PM UTC

twic wrote: post #141

mc32 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of the biggest advantages as well as disadvantage of homeschooling I think would be limiting the amount of school induced brainwashing. I don’t mean they make kids into automatons, but there is a tendency to _tell_ kids this is right and that is wrong along ideological lines without allowing kids to discover those things for themselves. I’m talking about things like tax policy, education, religion, government, et…

Kids get vastly more indoctrination through homeschooling than at any state school.

What data do you base that claim on?

Re: Laura Deming, founder of the Longevity Fund, on being homeschooled

#157

Post by monadic2 » Thu, Jun 25, 2020, 11:02 PM UTC

legitster wrote: post #155

Aperocky wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> functional, developed adults at about the same rate This is the part where I'm going to need some academical research. I really don't know either way - but I wouldn't take your word for it (Of course you could be researching this subject for years but you have only presented me with anecdotal evidence, which can be explained by selection bias).

Absolutely. It's only relevant since the original article is more or less a single anecdote. So I figure the discussion is about sharing anecdotes.

No need to bring the discussion down to the quality of the article.

Re: Laura Deming, founder of the Longevity Fund, on being homeschooled

#158

Post by lliamander » Thu, Jun 25, 2020, 11:05 PM UTC

realtalk_sp wrote: post #152

lliamander wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Genes" remaining immortal is quite distinct from an organism remaining immortal. I would say that death+reproduction is a better solution to preserving genes than immortality.

> I would say that death+reproduction is a better solution to preserving genes than immortality. It's just the solution nature came up with. It's also optimal at a population level and far less so at the organism level. Again: it is strictly preferable (by a very wide philosophical margin) to exist than to not exist. Of course, anyone who believes otherwise would be welcome to not participate in the concept of biolog…

> It's just the solution nature came up with. It's also optimal at a population level and far less so at the organism level.

My point is that what is optimal for the organism is different than what is optimal for it's genes, and that trying to derive the biological purpose based on the "desire" of our genes is invalid (or at least, it does not imply that our purpose is to continue existing as individual organisms).

> Again: it is strictly preferable (by a very wide philosophical margin) to exist than to not exist.

Agreed, which is why I think religious pursuits are also perfectly rational. If there is some eternal, transcendent reality outside of the material world, and we have a chance of participating in that reality, it is preferable to do so.

I hold nothing against those who would wish to extend human life. My critique was just regarding what I understood to be your chain of reasoning from genetic imperative to biological purpose.

Re: Laura Deming, founder of the Longevity Fund, on being homeschooled

#159

Post by laurademing » Thu, Jun 25, 2020, 11:08 PM UTC

Hi guys! This is Laura :) - everyone here is really cool and I can't believe this made the front page of HN so just wanted to drop my email here in case anyone wants to catch up on longevity stuff or other cool science discussion - ldeming.www@gmail.com. Sorry, I just really love geeking out and this seemed like a good place to find more thought buddies. Anyway, I love talking about most interesting things (physics / how computers work / all the stuff I don't know) so if you're down for it drop me a line!

(not sure how to verify but that's the email associated w all my public stuff / twitter posts so hopefully that's enough)

Re: Laura Deming, founder of the Longevity Fund, on being homeschooled

#160

Post by naveen99 » Thu, Jun 25, 2020, 11:12 PM UTC

speeder wrote: post #11

I want to homeschool my future kids but it is still illegal in my country (illegal as in: if you attempt it, the government will arrest you and send the kids to an orphanage) Thing is: public schools here outright suck, teach lots of bullshit and are dangerous. Private schools are crazy expensive, and although they are more useful they still teach a lot of bullshit. Also the educational style of all schools here is o…

How difficult is it to credential a private school ? Start your own...