From: Marko Cebokli (s57uuu_at_hamradio.si)
Date: Thu Aug 18 2005 - 17:59:57 UTC
Hello Alex,
you know the story about the fox and the sour grapes?
I think most of the "immortality bashing" is done for the same
reason - the same old psychological defense mechanism that
reduces our frustration by declaring things that we can't have as not
worth having.
The "no new folks - no new ideas" mantra doesn't impress me very much -
just think what kind of wonderful ideas one could have based on
500 years of life experience...
Anyway, removing all biological death causes, the average lifespan
wouldn't be much more than 1k years, because of accidents, murders
etc.
So if ever, real immortality will only be reached on artificial non-biological
substrates (conscious computers) where you can use backup copies
to avoid accidental death.
Such systems can be upgraded and changed "while alive" so no
need for "new persons" to get novelty and improvement.
Marko Cebokli
On Wednesday 17 August 2005 23:11, you wrote:
> Hello Once Again Gang,
> In several Science Fiction novels that have
> explored "The Immortality Option", the ones that come to mind include
> "Against the Fall of Night" and "The City and the Stars" by Arthur C.
> Clarke, and finally "The Giants Trilogy" by James P. Hogan, didn't
> immortality lead to a stagnation in the societies (whether human or
> alien) that chose it?
>
> The stagnation as depicted in these novels was usually cultural,
> scientific, and technological. From the stand point of evolution (both
> biological and cultural) isn't death a good thing? It leaves the way
> open for new experiments in humanity. Meaning new people replace the
> old, thus bringing forth new thoughts, ideas, and concepts into the
> world. Could we view death as an important factor in our continual
> evolution as a species and a society? Could we view "The Immortality
> Option" a form of "Temporal Imperialism" robbing future generations of
> their place in the world?
>
>
> In the novel "Tech-Heaven" Linda Nagata presents a future Earth where
> nano technology and cryonics is perfected. These breakthroughs cause
> huge sociological disruption. The future society depicted in the novel
> comes up with an interesting solution, they decide that all cryonauts
> who are revived and immortals should emigrate to space.
>
>
> I only present these questions to open this topic for what may prove an
> interesting discussion.
>
> Alex
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