"but"?
With greater longevity, the quest to avoid infirmities of aging is more urgent
191–200 of 245 posts
Re: With greater longevity, the quest to avoid infirmities of aging is more urgent
#192Somewhat off-topic, but I always thought the most prominent real-life reenactment of The Fox and the Grapes was all of the media and thinkpieces that people have written about how living for an extended period of time would be just _awful_. You wouldn't find many people who think that 40 years would be an acceptable lifespan, and most people would probably like to live to 100 if they got there in good health, but as…
"I could understand the impulse people would have to not extend their lives if that's truly what they wanted, but the almost _cultural_ belief that seeking immortality is Bad and Wrong, something only pursued by cartoon villains and insane emperors ..." I've spent some time thinking about this. Bear with me ... First, let me agree with you that I am flabbergasted by the notion that one would have nothing but ill-use…
People can change world-views multiple times in their lifetime, maybe this plasticity is just another thing we'll need to preserve as part of improvements designed for staying younger longer.
Arguably, for example in science, advancing it "one funeral at a time" is too slow even at current life expectancy. So one way of speeding it up is killing any prominent scientists over 30. Lots of benefits, right? We would have moon bases in early hundreds BC if humanity adopted that approach!
Advancing societal progress one generation worth of funerals at a time doesn't sound like a good strategy either. I propose reeducations camps instead. Similarly to how slavery during the time of its invention was a great humanitarian advance (alternative was literally death), imperative to keep up with times would be a good alternative to death as well.
Seriously though, changing society to value rationality, (in lesswrong kind of sense, with obligatory Crisis Of Faith exercises, etc) might be not much harder than extending life expectancy to 1k years.
Re: cancer -- society is not an organism, there is no inherent worth of society separate from what benefits it conveys to individual members. In other words, maybe that's my individual organismic bias showing, but individual cells live for the benefit of the host organism, while society exists for the benefit of individual members. Cancer cells are freedom loving cells!
Re: With greater longevity, the quest to avoid infirmities of aging is more urgent
#193Earlier quoted context omitted.
If I could find room for a squat rack+ bench at home I'd agree with you. :) Nothing beats proper squatting, deadlifting, bench and shoulder presses. I cycle a lot but the benefits for this desk jockey are marginal compared to doing stronglifts twice or thrice a week.
Depends on the body type and age and history. these movements are super hard on the spine. Try planks and step ups
They aren't hard on the spine with proper form.
Re: With greater longevity, the quest to avoid infirmities of aging is more urgent
#194Earlier quoted context omitted.
Or get a gym membership, actually use it and eat less crap. This may only give you a few years, but chances that it'll actually work are much higher.
That's my plan. I've got the gym membership and use it often. I struggle mightily with eating less crap, though. (Especially chocolate.) Food is one of the great pleasures in life, and I haven't found really healthy food to be a good replacement for tasty junk. Maybe advances in food production will bring hope?
This is just purely my observations. I'm of the firm belief that it doesn't really matter what you eat if you exercise enough. Military (actual combat, outside the wire) live off MREs yet are in phenomenal shape. I train strongman/powerlifting, it doesn't matter what I eat - double cheeseburger, fry, and chocolate shake, thats fine because my body needs the calories from the morning workout. It doesn't lead to six-pack abs, but I'll trade that for my level of strength.
Re: With greater longevity, the quest to avoid infirmities of aging is more urgent
#195Earlier quoted context omitted.
Interesting to know about free radical creation when mitochondria are overwhelmed. I’m sure there’s a lot more factors involved in aging however, not the least of which would be senescent cells. Telomeres only allow cells to divide ~50 times before they’re unable to replicate further.
Unable or won't?
Before they start eating their own instructions. Every chromosome will become a Y chromosome some time in the future if we do not invent the necessary means.
Re: With greater longevity, the quest to avoid infirmities of aging is more urgent
#196Somewhat off-topic, but I always thought the most prominent real-life reenactment of The Fox and the Grapes was all of the media and thinkpieces that people have written about how living for an extended period of time would be just _awful_. You wouldn't find many people who think that 40 years would be an acceptable lifespan, and most people would probably like to live to 100 if they got there in good health, but as…
These are the same people who complain that they would be bored if out of work for too long. I personally have so many personal or passion projects that I would like to undertake, but don’t have the time for, that I’d happily fill a few lifetimes with interesting things to do. Of course, there’s a difference between a few lifetimes and thousands of years or immortality.
Don't worry, it's quite likely you won't have thousands of years of immortality even if biological immortality is achieved. Eventually, something is going to kill you: a plane crash, a speeding bus, an earthquake, a murderer, etc. Just look at how many people are killed in cars every year in the US alone.
Re: With greater longevity, the quest to avoid infirmities of aging is more urgent
#197Somewhat off-topic, but I always thought the most prominent real-life reenactment of The Fox and the Grapes was all of the media and thinkpieces that people have written about how living for an extended period of time would be just _awful_. You wouldn't find many people who think that 40 years would be an acceptable lifespan, and most people would probably like to live to 100 if they got there in good health, but as…
"I could understand the impulse people would have to not extend their lives if that's truly what they wanted, but the almost _cultural_ belief that seeking immortality is Bad and Wrong, something only pursued by cartoon villains and insane emperors ..." I've spent some time thinking about this. Bear with me ... First, let me agree with you that I am flabbergasted by the notion that one would have nothing but ill-use…
But only some of the ideology from then is reactionary and conservative by today's standards.
Why the assumption that Past = Right/Conservative and Future = Left/Progressive? I grew up with about this view of politics, but I don't think it's accurate. It seems like a nice simplification, but it's a gross oversimplification that paints anything right of center as being obviously backwards.
Re: With greater longevity, the quest to avoid infirmities of aging is more urgent
#198Somewhat off-topic, but I always thought the most prominent real-life reenactment of The Fox and the Grapes was all of the media and thinkpieces that people have written about how living for an extended period of time would be just _awful_. You wouldn't find many people who think that 40 years would be an acceptable lifespan, and most people would probably like to live to 100 if they got there in good health, but as…
You are actually on topic! Well, the bikeshedding part of the topic. For some reason, any time we discuss extending human life, it quickly degenerates into an ethical question. First, I wouldn’t worry about it because we spend more effort discussing ethics than actually trying to solve the problem. Basically, because the problem is so hard we bikeshed on ethics. Second, it’s a very hard problem. It’s unlikely with th…
>We need to cure all the cancers, Alzheimer’s, heart disease, etc.
No, we really don't. Heart disease is mostly caused by lifestyle. And cancer and the aging process are two sides of the same coin: solve aging and you'll figure out cancer too. Alzheimer's is now appearing to be caused by a virus, so we'll probably have a vaccine for that before long.
Re: With greater longevity, the quest to avoid infirmities of aging is more urgent
#199Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think the rapid mental and physical decline in your twilight years dissuades most people from wanting to live much longer than that, not some inane moral compulsion to live within our "rightful" lifespan.
Everyone advocating and working towards increasing lifespan wants to eliminate that mental and physical decline. The goal is to give you more years feeling 30-40, not just more years feeling 90-110.
Exactly; no one wants to live as a decrepit elderly person for centuries. The whole idea is to stop aging altogether so you're always 25-30.
Re: With greater longevity, the quest to avoid infirmities of aging is more urgent
#200Earlier quoted context omitted.
That decline is what kills you. If you live longer, it is necessary that this decline be inhibited. Saying you don't want to live longer is basically the same as saying you want to be less healthy.
That's too simple. Slowing the decline for people who are in at least moderately good health who can enjoy life is of course a good thing. But in poor health, with no prospects of improvement... well, when's the last time you've visited a nursing home? The experience of helping taking care someone in hospice care makes it very clear that at some point they can't do much of anything, or enjoy much of anything, and pro…
>Slowing the decline for people who are in at least moderately good health who can enjoy life is of course a good thing. But in poor health, with no prospects of improvement
This is a really silly and non-sensical line of reasoning. We're talking here about achieving biological immortality: stopping the aging process. This would necessarily require understanding human biology and cellular processes at an extremely detailed level, in order to modify them artificially to stop aging altogether. (Most likely, this will require periodic treatments, much like we currently go to the dentist every 6 months for a cleaning.) If we have the technology to do this, people aren't going to be in poor health with "no prospects for improvement": the anti-aging technology or treatments are going to change that.