Submitted by cata890 t3_zefj7b in singularity
AsuhoChinami t1_iz6suuu wrote
>And the promise is huge: Not to help the wealthy to live to 200, but instead provide millions worldwide the prospect of lives that don’t end with a decade or more of chronic illness.
Man. We as a society have really been shamed into thinking it's immoral to want to live longer. "I-I-I don't want to live a day longer than 85 to 90, I promise! I don't want human life expectancy to ever reach longer than 90 or so, that would be wrong! I don't want anything more ambitious than for everyone to reach their 80s in good health because wanting more than that would be selfish and immature! I'm a mature adult, I promise!"
HeinrichTheWolf_17 t1_iz6urtn wrote
I wouldn’t worry, that position will go away pretty quickly once the tech is here.
Dindonmasker t1_iz7rzjd wrote
I just wish my grandmother would live long enough to see it... she's 91... she's an amazing person.
buddypalamigo19 t1_izaojuc wrote
My grandmother died a few months ago at 89. I tried to delicately open the subject with her a handful of times over the last 10 years or so, and she immediately shut me down each time. She wanted to die and go see my grandpa. No amount of talk from me would have changed her mind. And it hurts, knowing that I'll never see her again. But sometimes, there's nothing we can do. People will do what they want.
[deleted] t1_iz7stno wrote
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Morbo_Reflects t1_iz7ki93 wrote
Haha, absolutely!
Ivan_The_8th t1_iz8dwzc wrote
I think you underestimate religious fanatics. Tho they are going to die out at some point.
HeinrichTheWolf_17 t1_iz8hnks wrote
I really doubt most of them are gonna hold out without flip-flopping.
smackson t1_iz8zv5n wrote
Well, those with access will say "fuck that position, I want mine" but the flipside, the attitude from rest of world (the shamers) that those people should feel bad about it... that will stay until it's more democratized / widely available.
nvnehi t1_iz8zd74 wrote
Living longer is nice. Living forever would be hell, and tremendously boring.
HeinrichTheWolf_17 t1_iz94emb wrote
Well it’s a good thing I’m a posthumanist then. Seriously, the Singularity is going to give you total control of your mental state, just switch off boredom and never worry about it again brah.
Sorry man, traditionalists just cannot win =]
nvnehi t1_izdotri wrote
Yeah... that's the issue.
Once you turn off emotions, there's zero reason to ever turn them back on. What's the point of living if you're just a pure logic machine.
I'm so far from a traditionalist, I just have the intelligence to recognize that eternity is a really long time, and there are only so many experiences once can experience.
Once you can "set" options, you can also experience EVERYTHING within seconds in a sort of virtual environment, and truly experience them - not just in a visual way.
Death gives life meaning. When I was younger, I MAY have been in agreement but, as I get older, I recognize that you can't have the sweet without the sour, and I'd prefer not to live a meaningless life - which is what you get when you can "set" your mood, and personality, you end up with everyone being the same.
I'll hard pass on a Borg like future, thanks.
I'd prefer a singularity-assisted existence over being a singularity myself.
TampaBai t1_iz9xj2k wrote
When you realize what a bunch of BS organized religion is -- Christianity and Islam in particular -- then you closely observe nature, it begins to seep in that this is pretty much the only life we have. There is no honor in death, no childish afterlife based on how well we bargain with the "Boss Man in the Sky". Yet the average rube clings to immature and illogical notions of the inevitability and necessity of death. My hope is that once people see that life extension, or at the very least, longevity escape velocity, is a very real prospect, then the unwashed masses might finally throw off the chains of organized religion, and we as a Nation can unite around a proper Transhumanist logic based religion.
StarChild413 t1_izbjkk7 wrote
> finally throw off the chains of organized religion, and we as a Nation can unite around a proper Transhumanist logic based religion.
A. you do see the contradiction
B. and how do you know religious veneration of science and logic wouldn't lead to things like legally forbidding relationships where attraction hasn't been proven in a controlled experiment via physical signs
totalwarwiser t1_iza4ltd wrote
Wealth acumulation is bad. If you allow people to live hundreds of years just a few will own everything and we will be ruled by conglomarates (more than we already are).
Exel0n t1_iz8dtey wrote
a lot has to do with jealousy. normies always are super sensitive to the "wealthy" being able to have advantages. whether its money, status, yachts, private jets, health care.....
normies dont understand economics. they legit thinks "trickle down" is a false concept while its actually quite real in the real world, not normie's imaginary world. mobile phones used to be the size of brick in 90s and now almost everyone can afford a smartphone that's bascially a mini computer.
normies have no imaginations. they just can't grab the concept that just coz new things are expensive and more exlucisve, doesnt mean they'd remain the case decades later. things always have to start somewhere. but normies, due to their inherant lack of imagination and pettiness, they get mad if a new tech doesn't benefit them immediately. they always want instant benefits.
PhysicalChange100 t1_iz97x49 wrote
You're not superior because you call others "normies". You're an infantile narcissistic loser with nothing to show for.
ActuaryGlittering16 t1_izai9g9 wrote
Projection
smackson t1_iz8zj1v wrote
Not gonna downvote you, but you sound somewhat like an apologist for elitism. "Normies" is also too big and diverse a category to paint with such a broad brush.
I think It's possible to live in a world where economic incentives do have a role but where there are some limits on wealth disparity (and resulting quality-of-life disparity).
For example, I think the cellphone is a decent example of where the market was the prime mover (with one caveat: don't forget who invented the internet) and the poorest people did benefit from rich world tech investment and speculation.
But pharma and basic research is a mess... a lot of it subsidized by the taxpayer via grants in the university system, meanwhile price gouging on the other end by the pharma corps, for their contribution ("we have to make obscene profits or you won't have vaccines!") and insurance middlemen basically feeding off everyone else's misfortune.
And I think that if true life-extension arrives... the model will be much closer to the latter.
Exel0n t1_iz90p70 wrote
pharma is expensive af coz of excessive government regulation, especially the FDA. a medical trial literally cost billions in US and there'd be failed trials that yield nothing so those companies have to jack up prices to compensate. EU regulators are just as bad, probably worse.
the insurance scheme in US is also not free market.
the reason internet and IT took off so quickly is exactly coz of lack of regulation. otherwise it gonna be stifled just like medicine
it took covid to bring the mRNA tech online. without covid, mRNA still would be in animal trials.... and probably decades away from ever be mass released and also would have huge risk of getting banned due to side effects.
and it's exactly normies that are causing this. their fear of the unknown and their ignorance end up costing their own life quality but they don't understand, they never will.
smackson t1_iz95ccm wrote
> expensive af coz of excessive government regulation
Ah. I see you are a member of the church. The church of "whatever's wrong with free market capitalism is the fault of too much regulation".
You sound like one of those teenage libertarians who I thought were getting fewer on the non-circle-jerk areas of reddit.
Cult_of_Chad t1_iza6yev wrote
You're not exactly wrong. The fact that you're not being downvoted to hell means that the reddit tankies haven't gotten their claws into this sub yet.
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