HTOTM: FUSION
Original Post
Window of observation
We often think of the scale of the universe in size as it seams we are totally insignificant to the rest of the cosmos. however I was also thinking about just how small our amount of time is too observe what we know exists. We know that life has been chugging away for an enormous amount of time and I find it profoundly ironic that we can only observe about 80 years of that. and in that time we are taught that not only has life been chugging away for a while it will continue to go on long after we are dead. and we have at max 100 years to watch. there is so much we will never see, or know.

so I ask
if you could extend your lifetime would you?


In spite of all that I am of the opinion that our window of observation is kind of fantastic. it is long enough that we can learn of and from the past, and short enough that we can enjoy the present. if it was shorter it would be much harder to comprehend concepts like evolution, orbiting and many of the other thing we take for granted. so I personally would not wish to extend my window of observation.
To specify this: Are you asking if extending our lifespan by a significant amount of time would be ethical?
If yes, the idea that technologies can be used to improve a human being directly is called transhumanism.
Last edited by Redundant; Mar 27, 2012 at 06:34 AM.
How are you?
wow I read into that some it's quite interesting, as to your first question yes and no. I wasn't necessarily asking if it is ethical, because I've always disagreed with the idea of an ethical "truth". I was asking more along the lines of what people thought. If your opinion is influenced by an ethical code fantastic if not also fantastic.
Depends if I could not age but still live then yes but what is the point of being 500 and not being able to walk you know and being in pain.
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or better yet what the point of being 500 and unable to appreciate falling leaves in the autumn or the crunch of celery because you have lived so long that life is without color?
A well balanced birthrate/deathrate ratio is essential for our society for obvious economic reasons.
As long as that problem can't be solved before such a treatment gets introduced it would be very stupid to introduce it.

The only way I see that happen are by either strictly controlling the birthrate, which I oppose because it would probably lead to eugenics as the birthrate would need to be much lower than China's 1 child per family policy, or by making the treatment so expensive that only rich people can afford it.


So ye, as long as that points are relevant I'd not agree with such a treatment.

However, I'd personally get it done if it is possible because the concept of life sounds more fun than the concept of death.
Refusing the opportunity to life longer is a waste of time for you personally.
For all we know you only have one life and unless you are a strong religious believer who “knows” that god and afterlife are real you should hold onto it.
How are you?
as a non religious man I find the idea of afterlife terrifying.
on the other-hand I don't have a problem with the concept of death
it the thing that give my life meaning, I know I have a limited time which is my main motivation for everything
the idea of prolonged life bothers me simply because there would be no end i would get bored with life.

however what you said about birth-rate death-rate is spot on, in terms of keeping a stable planet that would make it impossible given our current distribution of wealth etc.
Well no becaue as we grow older we get more brittle unless we take the right amount of care for ourselves in excersizing and such but i say i wouldnt because i would have enjoyed my life enough to the point where if i did extend it when i was ready to die i would have to wait longer to do so because i wouldnt want to commit suicide so its really somthing that people who study the world would only want to do
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Nah.
Nah, I wouldn't want to be able to extend my lifetime, because to be honest the only reason life is interesting and fun is because life is short, if we lived twice as long as we do now then I think I'd kill myself, for example, life kind of dies out around 70, it gets boring from then on. So no, I'd stick with my own short life, short and sweet

Also, who knows what cost this extension would take? Fuck that.
I want to see where technology goes.
AI, augumented reality, space travel.. all that stuff.
I feel I'm gonna miss out on loads of cool stuff after I die sometimes...

So yeah, if I could have it done with no side effects, I'd go for it!