Promises of immortality »
Posted By Candida 4 months, 1 week ago in Science & TechnologyKhaled Diab: An English scientist is on a one-man mission to eliminate mortality – but would you like to live in a society without death?
If not, should society or the individual choose when to pull the plug? Should a 250-year-old physical teen be treated as an adult and served alcohol or not? Would society take long-term threats, such as the environment, more seriously because people will actually live to see the consequences? Does living so long rob future generations of their right to life? Would you like to live in a society without death?
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Candida
All my life I've had a thirst for knowledge, and I'm willing to learn from anyone, anywhere and anytime. I enjoy a good ...
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Newperson4 months, 1 week ago
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I have wondered what it would be like to live forever. I don't know if that would work out. The planet could not hold all the people. I must say it sounds wonderful but for every action there is a reaction. Death does not frighten me. I do not look forward to it but looking back I would not have wanted to miss the dance. Thanks Candida. Cool story. :)
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Natureboy4 months, 1 week ago
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1). Most folks look like hell at 80. Not sure I'd want to look in the mirror when I was three hundred years old.
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2). The boredom would eventually be unbearable. This is why I think the popular image of Heaven is so funny. How long could you sit on a cloud playing a harp (and how many of us can play a harp or even want to) before you were ready to eat a bullet?
3). Death is part of life. Ultimately, the quest to eliminate death is simply disrespect of life and of nature, the mother of life.
4). After the first hundred years or so, you WILL be spending the rest of your life wearing Depends. Ick.
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dissent4 months, 1 week ago
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great. nearly 6 billion of us on the planet. we're already a plague of biblical proportions stripping and destroying the planet like locusts..... and then the possibility of immortality arise.
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given the all too human inclination for evil, should this ever be a possibility it's going to attract a few troublesome issues....
firstly, a very high price. it will only be for the exceptionally rich.
secondly, it will probably require some kind of medicinal/surgical maintenance. stem cell rejuvenation therapy, now that's an industry to steer your kids into. there's no way this would be a once only operation for a once only fee, there's too much money to be made out of it. inbuilt obselescence is an essential marketing tool. there's no market and therefore no money if nothing needs to be replaced or maintained.
thirdly -- and this is where it gets really ugly -- there's going to have to be a culling of the herd to make immortality worthwhile. the numbers of mere mortals, a term that would become all the more literal, will need to be capped. in a sense, there's elements of this in place in this world with death by starvation, industrial-induced cancers and toxicities, and of course, easily eradicated diseases all too common in today's world. but it's clearly not enough. sterilization may be the more "humane" approach.
fourthly, there will never be a greater source of conflict between the haves and have nots than over this issue. expect serious social upheaval, civil strife, revolution, etc
and that's just the first four off the top of my head. i'm sure there are many many others
it's the sociological and environmental ramifications that need to be fully addressed before we open this pandora's box of issues
pulling the plug presents the logan's run scenario. not pulling it presents zardoz (google it)
personally i think there is something very wrong with this kind of thinking. death is in the natural order of things. it's needed to make way for new growth. this is the cycle of life, simba. no, death is not going away anytime soon -
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greenmac4 months, 1 week ago
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Death is not to be feared.... though the road to death can be a road to be feared. We all must die sometime... we all must make the best of the time we are allotted. The problem is we do not know how much time we have in our schedule. I personally used to look back back at days I have wasted.... but lately as I grow older I try to focus on the day in front of me... and enjoy it to the fullest. Even procrastination can be enjoyable if we rid our selves of the guilt that sometimes accompanies it.
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Sooooooo
seize the day
Treat every day like it is your last... you will be right some day
Try to put a smile on your face and someone elses , each and every day -
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lvrofwolves4 months, 1 week ago
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I'm not sure if I would enjoy life as much if I didn't fear death, of course that would allow for some extra feelings of freedom....but...I'll admit, I fear death, truly the unknown..I don't care what anyone thinks they know about after...nobody can know.
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Still I don't think I would want to live forever, but if you could ask anyone who died if they were ready to go and happy they're gone from here...how many you think would say yes?? -
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Peleus99994 months, 1 week ago
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A friend of mine published an article on this five years ago in The Humanist. He got a lot of attention and publicity, and amazingly enough, a lot of angry responses. His article was "The Future of Immortality" and it's online somewhere.
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I have to disagree with Dissent. Human beings make mistakes, but we are hardly a plague. We are the best thing to happen to this corner of the universe. We are the only species which creates art and medicine, and cares for each other. Volcanoes erupt and we help the victims. Cancer strikes us, and we strive towards a cure,
Besides, don't worry about overpopulation. We will do what creatures always do -- spread out. There's the moon, there's Mars, there's the asteroids. With immortality, we can move our eggs out of this fragile basket and into other areas... bringing a gift of life and promise to a cold universe.
Aging is a mechanical process. We know why it happens. And we'll learn to stop it.-
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Natureboy4 months, 1 week ago
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"We will do what creatures always do -- spread out. There's the moon, there's Mars, there's the asteroids. With immortality, we can move our eggs out of this fragile basket and into other areas... bringing a gift of life and promise to a cold universe."
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OK, so lets assume for a minute that we can't and won't live within the limits of the ecosystems we inhabit. So the solution is to live on the Moon or Mars or an Asteroid.
Let me assure you of something. If we can't live successfully and sustainably on Earth with all of its abundance, we damned sure won't be able to survive on the much smaller and less robust ecosystem present on a space ship, or inside a dome on a planet or asteroid with an inhospitable atmosphere. There, 100 percent recycling will be mandatory, living within the boundaries set by the ecosystem will be mandatory, air and water pollution or even a crop failure potentially fatal.
The truth is, we evolved here, and it's a damned good planet. If we can't do it here, we can't do it anywhere, and the idea that we will leave a spent Earth as if it were a used snotrag and sally forth to find and likewise despoil the galactic real estate is both foolish and disgusting.
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KhaledDiab4 months ago
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Hi all,
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I'm the author of the article you've been discussing. I'm glad that it stimulated you. I have launched a new site with lots of interesting content. Feel free to come along and visit it, and why not subscribe to the feed. The address is http://www.chronikler.com
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