V_V comments on SENS and Givewell: Conversation between Holden Karnofsky and Aubrey de Grey - Less Wrong

18 Post author: curiousepic 05 March 2013 07:24PM

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Comment author: V_V 07 March 2013 09:59:35PM *  0 points [-]

I have a hard time imagining being motivated more by health than longevity

Well, for many people longevity is not valuable by itself, but only up to the exent that it enables them to enjoy more things they like. Poor health is a major quality of life destroyer, and indeed a significant number of severy ill people refuse treatment that would prolong their life without improving its quality. Some even actively commit suicide.

I suppose that people obsessed with immortaility fantasies find difficult to understand this.

I would don a cyber-suit that keeps me alive but elderly for a hundred years to be rejuvenated later.

That's sci-fi. There are no cyber-suits that keep you alive for a hundred years to be rejuvenated later. They don't exist now, and they are not expected to exist in the foreseable future.

Comment author: lsparrish 08 March 2013 01:54:27AM 0 points [-]

Well, for many people longevity is not valuable by itself, but only up to the exent that it enables them to enjoy more things they like. Poor health is a major quality of life destroyer, and indeed a significant number of severy ill people refuse treatment that would prolong their life without improving its quality. Some even actively commit suicide.

Indeed. I doubt I would seek to extend my life under indefinitely poor conditions. I placed some limites on my illustration, e.g. elderly (not e.g. suffering intense and unremitting pain) and for a hundred years (not e.g. a thousand) for this reason.

I suppose that people obsessed with immortaility fantasies find difficult to understand this.

It's not a difficult concept, so I don't know why you would think that about such people.

That's sci-fi. There are no cyber-suits that keep you alive for a hundred years to be rejuvenated later. They don't exist now, and they are not expected to exist in the foreseable future.

Archimedes once said that, given a long enough lever and a fulcrum to rest it on, he could move the world with his body... I suppose you think that's "sci-fi" as well? Lighten up! Thought experiments don't always have to be realistic to prove a point.