> Underlying the pathetic quest for all power is fear: the fear of death. Some billionaires are building posh survival compounds and funding Frankensteinian research programs to defeat genetic decline and death.
Where the hell did that come from? Is the author saying we shouldn't even try? Why, because trying to reverse ageing (and its consequences) is unnatural? Because corpses in a fridge are disgusting? Because our fictions are full of tyrants and supervillain trying to achieve immortality? Because there's some natural "balance" that would require the many to die so the few could be immortal?
I sense a cognitive dissonance here. As far as I can guess, most people living now will die in less than 120 years. Possibly everyone. If we do achieve significant life extension, there's a good chance it will only be accessible to rich people, at least for a time. And the longer we live, the wider inequalities may rise. That's unfair, so it's better if everyone dies, right?
Wait a minute, you'd solve inequalities by killing everyone?
I'm tired of those stabs at transhumanism that don't even try to justify themselves. Yes, many post humanists scenarios are a hell even Lovecraft couldn't comprehend. See Robin Hanson's speculations on mind uploading to get a taste. But assuming that all such scenarios are bad is a failure of the imagination, I think.
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To the author's credit, the paragraph ends with a Woody Allen quote about "living on in [his] apartment" that is spot on. Almost contradicts what I've quoted, so I'm not sure what the author actually thinks.
Where the hell did that come from? Is the author saying we shouldn't even try? Why, because trying to reverse ageing (and its consequences) is unnatural? Because corpses in a fridge are disgusting? Because our fictions are full of tyrants and supervillain trying to achieve immortality? Because there's some natural "balance" that would require the many to die so the few could be immortal?
I sense a cognitive dissonance here. As far as I can guess, most people living now will die in less than 120 years. Possibly everyone. If we do achieve significant life extension, there's a good chance it will only be accessible to rich people, at least for a time. And the longer we live, the wider inequalities may rise. That's unfair, so it's better if everyone dies, right?
Wait a minute, you'd solve inequalities by killing everyone?
I'm tired of those stabs at transhumanism that don't even try to justify themselves. Yes, many post humanists scenarios are a hell even Lovecraft couldn't comprehend. See Robin Hanson's speculations on mind uploading to get a taste. But assuming that all such scenarios are bad is a failure of the imagination, I think.
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To the author's credit, the paragraph ends with a Woody Allen quote about "living on in [his] apartment" that is spot on. Almost contradicts what I've quoted, so I'm not sure what the author actually thinks.