Why do all you SUCKERS think you're gonna die?

[AWoodside]

Transhumanism is something you should look into.

[guids]

Ya, it sounds good in theory, that our sole focus should be to figure out how to live forever, but who wants to be the guy to waste his whole life doing it if we cant figure out how to.

[Metric]

I, for one, think I have a reasonable chance of outliving the sun. Nowhere close to a lock of couse, but a distinct possibility that warrants consideration.

~10 years ago, the cloning of large mammals was sci-fi, we had identified a few percent of the human genome, wireless tech. was essentially non-existent in its current form, ipods were non-existent, the price performance of computing was orders of magnitude less than it is today, and the internet was just beginning to get popular. And the next ten years will be significantly greater that that in terms of technological growth, milestones, and revolution. And the ten after that, etc. etc. etc.

[Subfallen]

I can't believe that Kurzweil's book hasn't been mentioned yet.

[DrunkHamster]

With all the crap our generation is doing to the planet, would you really be willing to put yourself up for trial in 1000 years time?

[felson]

What a dumb post. Obviously the real issues are why we're not living 10 billion years or moving galaxies with our thoughts. Or maybe I'm the wacko!

[thedorf]

[ QUOTE ]
With all the crap our generation is doing to the planet, would you really be willing to put yourself up for trial in 1000 years time?

[/ QUOTE ]

If the alternative is complete nothingness, wouldn't you? Even if life is torturous at that time, I would still take temporary torture over eternal nothingness.

[thedorf]

[ QUOTE ]
I, for one, think I have a reasonable chance of outliving the sun. Nowhere close to a lock of couse, but a distinct possibility that warrants consideration.

[/ QUOTE ]

This makes a really good point. Actually, my whole argument is not that it simply warrants consideration, but that it might warrant much more consideration than other major issues like global warming or the Iraq war. I think it especially has a place when talking about personal nutrition, health, and fitness because those things, if considered very carefully can get you to the age of maybe 120. To that I say, "who cares?" I'm sure if you treat your body right you can live a moderately fulfilled life beyond the age of ninety but not fulfilled enough in my book to pay so much attention to it. Dying at 80 and dying at 120 seem close enough to the same difference.

I think the fact that you mention that it's no where near a lock is important too. I would go along with that but it's sort of a pot odds problem at that point. There's very little chance that that bottom pair is good to but if it costs you 20 dollars into a 300 pot you're more likely calling.

The chances of living 10 thousand years appear quite small right now but the pot is enormous.

by the way, the nutrition, health and fitness issue plays a role in the extreme life expansion discussion because it makes a lot of sense to live for 120 years if extreme life expanding technology is, say, only 90 years away.

[Metric]

I agree on most points, but there are eough scoffers that I don't really feel the need to preach to them -- exponential trends will become more and more obvious as time goes on, anyway. Merging with technology might not be as far off as you think, though. The current computer chip-making paradigm (without going to quantum computing or complex 3D chip structure) is already sufficient to support Moore's law into the mid 2020's, which will have home PC's rivaling the human brain in sheer comptations per second. AI tech and human/machine interfaces will also be exponentially better by then. My wild, hand-waving guess is that if you can make it to 2040 being financially pretty well-off, you may be able to live for 10,000 years (assuming some combination of horrendous events doesn't mess up the technology curve in the intervening years) -- more or less in line with Kurzweil's timeline and estimates.

[Piers]

[ QUOTE ]
Why don't more of you who have resigned yourself to eternal dirt and decomposition seek eternal life right here in the good ol' secular universe?

[/ QUOTE ]

Afraid we are going have to wait for the biologists to work that one out. Not much the rest of us can do.

[ QUOTE ]
Here's why i think you're missing the boat. There is no law that says that someone can't live for, say, 10,000 years. Theoretically, individual cells can very easily be frozen for even longer than that and come right back to life like nothing ever happened.

[/ QUOTE ]

If I am going to live for 10000 years I wont to be conscious otherwise it does not really count.

[ QUOTE ]
Cryogenics/cryonics seems to be for the wackos right now

[/ QUOTE ]

I think curing old age is the way to go, not cryogenics.

[ QUOTE ]
Why don't you guys try looking through some brain scans to find individual identity (I'm referring to what the believers would call the soul).

[/ QUOTE ]

Again a job for neurobiologists, not us laymen.

[ QUOTE ]
Did you ever consider that intelligence might be the ultimate survival trait?

[/ QUOTE ]

I am sure a lot of people have.

[ QUOTE ]
That we're supposed to use it to live indefinitely long and reproduce indefinitely?

[/ QUOTE ]

“Supposed to”? Did you really mean that? Who but us is going to care one-way or the other?

[ QUOTE ]
faster selling electric toothbrush

[/ QUOTE ]

What’s wrong with electric toothbrushes? If I am going to live for 10000 years I want to keep all my own teeth.

[ QUOTE ]
Not that I think these things are unimportant

[/ QUOTE ]

Good maybe you do realise the importance of tooth hygiene.

[ QUOTE ]
so I can stop worrying about why anyone worries about anything other than staying alive for the next ten thousand years.

[/ QUOTE ]

Its quite simple. Most people have never even considered the possibility, most of the rest could not do anything about it anyway.

Very interesting to see where the biological sciences will be in fifty years time.