Re: Desirability of Immortality
den Otter (otter@globalxs.nl)
Thu, 19 Feb 1998 18:40:11 +0100
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DOUG.BAILEY@EY.COM wrote:
> My concern was what would be the effect on society and the pace at which new
> ideas are
> adopted by society if there were extremely ancient (not in body) individuals
> walking about?
/snip/
> My first impulse is to say it would impede progress. That may be
> oversimplifying the
> effects, but I think its an important issue to look at.
If you're immortal (preferably in some kind of uploaded form) and able
to create/do about anything you wish, then what's the rush? The only
reason why progress is so important *right now* is because we're still
such limited, *mortal* creatures. Gods, on the other hand, can afford
to chill out. If there are no significant changes to your identity for a
long time, that is no problem as long as you're enjoying yourself and
your safety is not infringed.
P.s: I assume that biological "immortality" (no aging) and uploading
(in whatever form) will arrive at about the same time, so that there
will never be a real era of immortal "plain humans". Everyone who's
anyone will probably upload a.s.a.p, once the technology is refined.