OpEd Piece on Extended Life Expectancy

daksis writes "CNN has posted an OpEd piece from the New York Times that raises some interesting issues. With the current advances in biology, we as a society are facing the real possibility that "immortality" could some day be the norm. What sort of social impact can we expect when/if life expectancies are measured in centuries?"

Comments

This guy knows!

[Cybrr]

Alex Chiu

Best summary of my position:

[Dr. Manhattan]

"Personally, I've been hearing all my life about the Serious Philosophical Issues posed by life extension, and my attitude has always been that I'm willing to grapple with those issues for as many centuries as it takes." - Patrick Nielsen Hayden

Obligatory

[QuantumFTL]

Here goes my first attempt at cliche hording.
without even reading the friendly article, I can already accurately predict (based on my education, which is mostly from slashdot):

• This means we might actually be around when Duke Nukem Forever is released.
• Each one of us has a chance with Natalie Portman... Think about it, a nonzero probability (except for you, Cowboyneal) integrated over an infinite time... I can dream at least...
• In Soviet Russia, forever lives for YOU. Perhaps if we reconstruct Soviet Russia we will be able to figure out what this means.
• SCO and/or Jeff Bezos already have a patent on immortality. They blatently disregard God's prior art.
• Think infinite hot grits. Yum.
• With all the time in the world, we no longer have to only "imagine a beowolf cluster of X".

Sounds like a blast to me.
Oh, wait, forgot... we can argue about BSD dying unto eternity as well (and perhaps Apple too).

Cheers,
Justin

One big change...

[magicsquid]

Should we all become immortal, I suspect a lot more people will be using a lot more Viagra.

I think it's great!

[L. VeGas]

It just gives me more time to subjugate all humans and rule the earth with an iron fist.

Now I have time to watch some TV first.

Lemme seee....

[GeneralEmergency]

...100 more years with the DMCA, Patriot Act, the MPAA and the RIAA getting meaner and stronger?

Slashdot too?

Tough choice. I'll get back to you.

I don't know about you

[prostoalex]

But I am planning to insult every person in the Universe.

Oh, that's just great!

[dmuth]

Oh, that's just great!

Now when people go Christmas shopping, they'll have to buy Christmas presents for their grandparents, great-grandparents, great-great-grandparents, great-great-great-grandparents, great-great-great-great-grandparents, great-great-great-great-great-grandparents, and the list goes on and on. People will go brankrupt and the economy will collapse, the horror!

(This is a joke, for the humor-impaired)

Finishing

[Dark Paladin]

Assuming that the individual is in decent health and not a 200 year old husk of skin kept alive by machines - I think I know what I would do with immortality:

1. Finally finish Xenogears (which, after over 6 months of playing, I'm still working on. How long is this game, anyway?)

2. Try every possible combination of Jelly Belly Jelly Beans. (Hm - Mint Pineapple Peanut Butter - yup, that sucks. Check off the list. Now lets try Vanilla Chocolate Pepper! No...)

3. Recreate the movie Gone with the Wind frame for frame using my specially trained gerbels. (Once I figure out how little Rett is going to carry Scarlet up the little mouse stairs.)

4. See Sakura Taisen finally ported to English, or barring that, have the universal translator chip implanted into my brain.

5. Watch Neon Genesis Evangelion and have the final episodes of the TV series plus the two movies actually make some sense.

Wahahahaha! Oh, I'm kidding - EVA make sense. My bad.

6. Finally shoot Pac-Man: The Movie.

7. Go to space. With my wife. Close the hatch for some privacy. Get our space freak on to the music of "Thus Spoke Zarathrusta" (the 2001 music) for our own "docking manuevers".

Just some ideas off the top of my head to do with immortaility.

Re:population

[jericho4.0]

Because sitting in one place for a million years is really, really boring?

If people live to be centuries old and drive...

[Torgo's Pizza]

I soon predict that the first thing to happen is that people will start avoiding farmer's markets completely.

Me being a Nerd...

[tomzyk]

and some unlucky folks getting their 60, or worse, 6!

Isn't 6! better than 60?

6! = 6*5*4*3*2*1 = 720

Re:population

[IWorkForMorons]

Ah yes...as if it's not already hard enough for me to find a new job...

Programmer Wanted. Must have 100+ years experience in object-oriented programming, 50+ years as Senior Developer.

I wonder if they'll start coming up with new levels of experience? Senior Programmer...Guru Programmer...UBER Programmer...God-like Programmer. As if programmers egos weren't big enough...

Re:Funny you should mention this

[Mike1024]

Hey,

Scientists and Engineers live the longest next to pre-med. Sweet.

What's more, lawyers and liberal arts types die first.

Maybe there is justice in the world after all.

TWAJS

Michael