lsparrish 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: 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.