phoenixjazz t1_j49pt87 wrote on January 14, 2023 at 3:33 AM

Reply to comment by Mountain-Award7440 in Breakthrough milestone in understanding the reversal of aging by duffmanhb

If this works as described I’m wondering how society’s are going to deal with a change as massive as this and not shatter under the stress of it. If the death rate drops and the Birth rate stays the same we will need more resources. Will there be enough? If we get a second life after 60 years of toil will it be one of leisure / pursuit of personal interest or will it be 60 more years of toil? Societal changes will likely be huge and the disruptions larger than one might think.

Mountain-Award7440 t1_j49udz7 wrote on January 14, 2023 at 4:12 AM

I think with the advancements of this type of tech there will also be advancements in other types of supplemental tech. Lab grown food, terraforming, etc. I’m not worried about resources running out for humanity once we reach AGI and ASI.

I also think as more and more of our workforce gets automated we will have to institute UBI or something similar, but ultimately we will become a post-scarcity society where people don’t have to work at all and where everyone will be able to cheaply acquire or create anything they need.

What really fascinates me are the social ramifications that perhaps even our generation will experience: imagine being the same physical age as your children AND grandchildren. That’s a really weird possibility that seems like it might be on the table for us. How do marriages work if you’re living 250 years? How do families work or friendships? How does crime and punishment work? Are we going to imprison murderers for centuries? Will people start wearing full mech suits knowing that if they die it’ll be hundreds of years of life missed instead of 50-70 years?

As you say there will be very large disruptions, tons of which we probably won’t even anticipate. The near-ish future is gonna look completely different to the world we’ve grown up in. The 90s and 2000s will seem literally medieval compared to the 2060s. I really hope I’m here to see it all.

Sh1ner t1_j4b279k wrote on January 14, 2023 at 12:58 PM

A bit of theory crafting:
 
The majority poor people of the world can't get enough food or minerals to sustain their bodies. They suffer from malnutrition and easily curable diseases that will kill many of them.
 
If its pill form and the rich nations get this we may have a new divide. The ones that live longer vs the ones that have short lives, we may have a new form of protests/terrorism until the rich nations figure out how to get the poor nations of the world improving conditions for their people.
 
If this is available only to the 0.1% of the wealthy of the world, I assume they will have to start going into hiding to avoid controversy until it comes to the masses. Same issue of protests that may lead into terrorism until it becomes cheap enough for more people.

banuk_sickness_eater t1_j4br6go wrote on January 14, 2023 at 4:13 PM

Advancements in artificial intelligence will usher in an era of post scarcity, specifically energy post scarcity as companies like Google DeepMind begin to tackle fundamental problems in the realm of fusion.