[FortunaMaximus]

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I realize you weren't saying anything about me specifically, just wanted to point out that in my case it's a rational decision that doesn't involve escapism nor denial (I recognize that I may have subconscious psychological biases that are functionally the equivalent, but I do at least attempt to proactively eliminate these). Also, I think you'd be surprised at the fraction of transhumanists that have a similarly level-headed and thoughtful approach.

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Only indirectly, and no harm meant really. It's just that I take a longer view of what such things will mean for the species. Once your singularity happens, what remains is to resolve the issue of bringing the dead back. When you're immortal and have uncountable millennia to resolve what's left of the Universe, you have expansion and then retrival.

I agree that transhumanists are by and far rational, at least moreso than Christians, who prefer to leave the solution to a unseen God. And reducing/minimizing risk and making sure you're on the front wave of such a shift in humanity is understandable.

But if it will happen anyway, taking any approach has an equal chance of getting you there.

Have you ever thought about how to fill the centuries? Millennia perhaps? [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img] The range of interests and depth of understanding simply isn't that deep and broad. But better to be there than not, right?

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Well, it wont necessarily happen. If the singularity occurred in the year, say, 2070, my lifestyle choices would have a huge barring on whether or not I made it. I agree that there are murky philosophical and metaphysical issues involved with applications of future technology to thing live reviving the dead. I'm signed up with a cryogenic freezing insurance policy myself, although I don't put much stock in it. As they say, "being cryogenically frozen is the second worst thing you can be" [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

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It would be a problem without solution and a solution would be tried. And it'd be a very challenging problem, even moreso than any expansion or population issues. Long-term view. At least cryogenics is a hedge with only positive benefit.

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As for filling the time, this is honestly the least of my worries. You seem like a quite intelligent fellow, and I'm confident that if you spent a relatively small amount of mental energy and imagination on the issue you could come up with a plethora of ways in which to spend 10, 100, even 1000 current lifetimes. With the augmented intelligence and perceptual capability that is sure to come with technological progress in the singularity-age (assuming we get there) this will only become easier. And, ultimately, if I ever find myself at the point where I feel like I've exhausted all the personally meaningful avenues the universe has to offer I have no moral qualms with simply offing myself. I can't really imagine that happening for a long long time though (we're talking heat death of the universe timescales).

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I already have, and basically realized I'd rather have the option of true immortality or I'd live out what my biology gives me, with the risks I choose to take. Several additional centuries wouldn't do the job for me. I take a rather simple approach to day to day life and would probably not get bored, but people seeking greater and greater challenges would.

Augumented intelligence I'd rather pass on though, and come to those conclusions on my own. It's personal bias, preferring to come to conclusions honestly and through my own effort rather than through technological aids.

It's good you have no moral qualms about suicide in such a scenario, because it would probably be the highest, if not only cause of death in such an illusory paradise. Illusory because there would be plenty of problems with the initial generations, a couple of which have been mentioned already in the thread.

Like you, I'd rather have the opportunity, but I realize it doesn't matter if it happens in '70 or in 2170, because it either happens and continues to accelerate, or we don't quite get there.

And maybe that's laziness on my part, but I recognize I don't need to be proactive in such a scenario, and if it happens, so be it. What's for certain is you take a healthier approach to getting there with more redundancy.