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I think there is nothing wrong with being curious or trying to prolong life. After all most human beings want to live for as long as possible.

Death has taken a lot of good people but it has also made it so that there is an end to a Stalin. It has made it possible for old ideas to die off.

I wonder how life would be if people could live forever. The up side is all the good people we love never dying but so will the evil/bad people.

I am inclined to advocate for life but I couldn't help thinking about the downsides or unintended consequences.

Colby Serpa 11mo ago

If death is the only way to drown out evil then humanity is in trouble. I’d like to think the overwhelming presence of good can counteract a few bad apples.

I’d also like to think a rise in intelligence may make it harder for Stalin-like figures to manipulate people/masses of sheep. Quality of life/mind is just as important as length of life.

Every advancement in technology, from the invention of money and weaponry, to computing and the nuke that spawned from physics, has created dualistic consequences for humanity. The duality shouldn’t stop us from pursuing. I doubt life can become multiplanetary without life extension.

If we stop life extension just to ensure bad people and ideas can die off, then those bad people and ideas have already won… they would be stopping humanity from progressing without lifting a finger.

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Discussion

Colby Serpa 11mo ago

Another way to unveil this truth is to think about individual diseases.

Neuron diseases (Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s MS, ALS)

Cancer

Infections

Heart attack

All horrible burdens… as each one is cured, life extends.

General life extension is frowned upon by many but when asked about curing individual diseases, almost everyone encourages it. It’s a peculiar phenomena I’ve seen over the years. Deep down, I think we all just want to alleviate suffering — and calling it life extension makes us forget how painful the destroyers of life are. The individual disease names make us remember / triggers empathy.

cypherhoodlum🏴‍☠️ 11mo ago

Never thought of it that way. I've been in the "limited conciousness enables meaning in life" camp but that is a very good point.

Maybe the pursuit of longevity is the goal in itself even if voluntary immortality can never be achieved.

Colby Serpa 11mo ago

https://youtu.be/wU0PYcCsL6o

Living long doesn’t make our consciousness truly unlimited. We still can’t predict the future, and accidents can still happen. Close shaves…

Surprise and anticipation of the future make life interesting, and it’s only possible because our consciousness is limited by not fully knowing the future. No advances in longevity will ever break that limitation. :-)

I think reminders of death (memento mori) and bad parts of life will still remind us of what’s most meaningful, as they always have, even without diseases. War is unfortunately a more persistent thorn than aging.

Beneath The Ink 11mo ago

Moreover, with the vast expanse of the universe a longer life would still be met with the vast unknown.

For our current limited lives the idea of an endless expanse is often filled with ideas of heaven or the afterlife.

For people with lifetimes that we cannot fathom, exploration will be the "endless unknown"

If there is truly anything that has driven mankind for the better it has been exploration and curiosity. It seems only when we are cornered or stuck in one place that evil spawns within us.

Siphiwe 11mo ago

This is true. I think if we worked on extending life and improving cognitive ability and judgment, we might have a good enough life without death. While I can see a path towards life extension and can see cognition improved, I don't know how we improve judgment.

I have always been fascinated by super

smart people being taken up and used by

demagogues, it seems being smart is not

enough to keep you away from doing or being evil.

I guess while I am thinking about it, we need to solve poverty and strife, as this is what has been used by the worst people to get the masses on their side and gain power.

This is a cool and fascinating conversation.

Colby Serpa 11mo ago

Yeah intelligence certainly isn’t a perfect shield against evil, but it may help mitigate being manipulated by evil people… and not having a lack of resources also makes political leaders less persuasive since they’re usually promising people things in exchange for power and control.

Siphiwe 11mo ago

🙏