Advertisement
Hello, thought I would say high to fellow futurists and humans for the betterment of mankind. I would be interested in thoughts on current research in biotechnology and estimates of expanding life expectancies. I consider myself quite an optimistic futurist and look forward to living (barring accidents) well into my 200th year (healthily). What are your personal opinions on this technology? Links to articles and or research would be wonderful as well as opinions! Thanks. -Daniel
posted by:
|
Advertisement
Advertisement
-
Re: New guy
12/24I'm new to this Tribe too although I've subscribed to the Betterhumans News Letter for lo these many months. I'm 72 and have high hopes of living until some form of downloading becomes possible. The "welcome" thread here tells me, by the gist of the messages, that I've come to the right place. As to my use of my dog's photo to identify me, he's not smarter than I, just looks that way!
-
Unsu...
Re: New guy
12/24In regards to life expectancy, I think that a reasonable goal is to make it to the turn of the 22nd century. For me, that would mean that I have to make it to my 130th year, which by some estimates is not too radical. For those who can make it that far, I think the sky's the limit in terms of life expectancy. That being said, there may be other radical changes to intellects by that time, and the singular consciousness as we know it today may be greatly altered. -
-
Unsu...
Re: New selfhood
12/26Yeah, if/when digital consciousness enters the picture, stuff is going to get passing wacky with regard to what exactly "I" is. From a naturalistic perspective "I" is "what I remember" - if memories become 'downloadable", well, I spoze the mystics wioll have been right all along - "we are all one".... -
-
Re: New selfhood
12/26What you're saying is, if the "I" is just a memory complex and we all go "on-line" metally, we will automatically become a species hive identity with no "I" at all? That would be one form of immortality but with little satisfaction to my "I"! -
-
Unsu...
Re: New selfhood
12/26Hard to know, though, isn't it? I don't know if the transformation would be automatic per se, but I think it would be inevitable, ultimately. Everyone would have access to the same vast body of information - imagine what the politics of such a situation would be! Kurzweil, optimist that he is, presented some of these scenarios in his book "the Age of Spiritual Machines", but personally I think his (and Moravec's) ideas lack a well-thought-out analysis of the inertia of human society/economics/psychology...
www.kurzweilai.net
www.kurzweilcyberart.com/
www.jetpress.org/volume1/moravec.htm
www.frc.ri.cmu.edu/~hpm/
One thing I think *is* true, though, in Kurzweil's vision, your satisfaction would be entirely at your leisure, as it would be under your conscious control. I envision having to carefully balance one's sense of satisfaction against what one would 'want' to accomplish.
There's a thought: what is the world like for a being that can actually desire only what it *wants* to desire? heh heh.
-
-
-
