immortality is closer than you think

do you think it's a good idea to give people immortality

  • Total voters
    11
Andrew256 said:
Do you know of any research being done in this direction? Some article or publication maybe?
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Nope. A few science fiction stories that posit a world like that, and a few court cases where birth control (for both sexes) is mandated for offenders - but I don't know of any studies on it.
 
DaveC426913 said:
Right. I'm not suggesting there aren't treatments withheld (for a host of reasons), and I'm not denying there isn't a selection process. (Even organ recipients are selected based on their qualifications, such as whether they're likely to be a repeat abuser.) Nor am I denying that money almost always affords access to expensive treatments.

Simply the idea that people would get selected for their worthiness in some way other than medically.
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Let's step away from immortality for a bit.

Have you tried a moral test regarding self-driving cars? You've shown a hypothetical situation when the car is on a collision course and asked to choose who to save and who to sacrifice.
I'm sure you have, but here's one of the variants:
http://moralmachine.mit.edu/

What does it seem to you? There is a lot of, and I quote, "the idea that people would get selected for their worthiness", in this concept.
 
Andrew256 said:
Have you tried a moral test regarding self-driving cars?

There is a lot of, and I quote, "the idea that people would get selected for their worthiness", in this concept.
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Yes. I've even raised this argument myself in another thread.

And no, it won't happen. Cars will not be imbued with the knowledge of worthiness of victims. It would be the same mistake you're making.
 
DaveC426913 said:
Yes. I've even raised this argument myself in another thread.

And no, it won't happen. Cars will not be imbued with the knowledge of worthiness of victims. It would be the same mistake you're making.
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Ok, so, in the event of two patients awaiting a heart transplant, and there's only one donor heart, I assume your solution would be to flip a coin?
 
Andrew256 said:
Ok, so, in the event of two patients awaiting a heart transplant, and there's only one donor heart, I assume your solution would be to flip a coin?
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The sickest one or the one on the waiting list longest gets it

:)
 
Michael 345 said:
The sickest one or the one on the waiting list longest gets it

:)
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Ok, then, in case of immortality treatment, let's assume that we won't be able to treat everyone at the same time. We'll have to make a priority list, and by this logic, old people who are closest to dying are treated with immortality first. But what if waiting for your turn in the list takes years? So we stop aging of people who are already sick, weak, and struggle to survive, only to let younger people, who can benefit from immortality much more, grow older.

So so many problems and questions with "just give immortality away to everyone" philosophy, pretty much in every imaginable scenario.
 
Andrew256 said:
Ok, then, in case of immortality treatment, let's assume that we won't be able to treat everyone at the same time. We'll have to make a priority list, and by this logic, old people who are closest to dying are treated with immortality first. But what if waiting for your turn in the list takes years? So we stop aging of people who are already sick, weak, and struggle to survive, only to let younger people, who can benefit from immortality much more, grow older.

So so many problems and questions with "just give immortality away to everyone" philosophy, pretty much in every imaginable scenario.
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Problem with hypotheticals like these is they tend to turn into YABUTS with shifting goalposts

No matter any answer given somebody will come back with a YABUT

:)
 
DaveC426913 said:
...said as if that's a bad thing.
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A lot of smart and influencial people think it might be a bad thing and a curse, but I'm too lazy to find the links right now. Otherwise, people would not start forum threads like this.

Michael 345 said:
Problem with hypotheticals like these is they tend to turn into YABUTS with shifting goalposts

No matter any answer given somebody will come back with a YABUT
:)
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We have ecological crisis right now because the right people weren't bringing the YABUT argument at the right time.
 
Andrew256 said:
We have ecological crisis right now because the right people weren't bringing the YABUT argument at the right time.
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Define
  • Right people
  • Right time
  • And content of YABUT
ALL opinions and imI sure there would be contenders just as passionate on a counter view

:)
 
DaveC426913 said:
...said as if that's a bad thing.
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Michael 345 said:
ALL opinions and imI sure there would be contenders just as passionate on a counter view:)
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Look, I'm not against it, ok? If we all could become immortal without repercussions and without irreversibly hurting the ecological and humanitarian systems, this would literally be the best thing ever happening to mankind.

But, I can bet all my money that should immortality be invented, after clinical trials on a small portion of people and if proven to lack any biological side effects, it won't become available to everyone. There will be some form of selection, either in a form of lottery (similar to green card), a government approved selection, commercialization, e.t.c, but not everyone will be able to just eat the pill and stop worrying about aging. And it's not because I said so, but because this is reality. There are reasons, and to me it seems you want to hear nothing of it.

But then again, I'm just a small-time software engineer, what do I know about sociology and ecology. My bet still stands though.

P.S. Talking about reality, prospect of immortality does sound unreal, there's a good chance it won't ever happen.
 
Andrew256 said:
But, I can bet all my money that should immortality be invented, after clinical trials on a small portion of people and if proven to lack any biological side effects, it won't become available to everyone. There will be some form of selection, either in a form of lottery (similar to green card), a government approved selection, commercialization, e.t.c, but not everyone will be able to just eat the pill and stop worrying about aging.
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It will be based on criteria for clinical fitness to the treatment, not some lottery.

We've got zillions of live-prolonging treatments right now (such as those for Diabetes) but not everyone is suited to the treatment for one reason or another - whether some underlying condition that puts them at-risk, or some intolerance to a treatment, or whether that particular flavour of the disease responds to the treatment.

In the case of immortality, it is not implausible to suppose that the first generation of treatments can only slow or stop aging, but not reverse it and not repair worn components. Which means it might be a regimen that must be started at an early age - i.e. older people, who already have weak hearts or arthritis might not benefit from it.
 
I would surely like to be immortal.

Obviously, if everyone were immortal there would be a problem at some time in the future unless the birth rate went down to almost zero.
 
shacro said:
alot of people don't think living a longer healthier life is a good idea,
"life doesn't have meaning if you don't die" or"people living forever will cause overpopulation" and on and on
so what do you think what is better is it a good idea to make all immortals infertile to combat the lack of death or we just don't make any immortals

if you want more info google it and look on your own so your not bias
and this is a small preview of what I found
w3.youtube.com/watch?v=C25qzDhGLx8
w3.lifespan.io/campaigns/join-us-become-a-lifespan-hero/


note: we are only talking about biological immortally
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Immortality is the result of logic and reason.
Death is the unknown.
Stepping into the unknown is foolish.

If a random stranger you never met before, asked you to step in a room, which he said would cause you excruciating pain, and when you asked him "Why" he never responded, and you knew no details about the room or the door behind the room, or what would happen or what journey you would embark on after you entered the room, who in their right mind would want to go in their room?


Of course immortality presents its own set of problems, such as overpopulation, thus people would have to be sterilized in order so that they might still enjoy pleasure sex, but not overpopulate the planet.
 
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