Spike Jones wrote:
[in response to den Otter]
> I have been reading in The Lessons of History by Will and Ariel Durant.
> They have reached the depressing conclusion that equality and
> freedom are mutually exclusive in a sense. If goverments will
> leave us alone (like most of us would like) then even small
> inherent differences among us will lead to exponentially increasing
> levels of technology, perhaps leading to a situation where a dozen
> people achieve immortality while the masses die. spike
I've read their entire "civilization", but not "Lessons of History." I think that the conclusion overlooks the likelihood of altruism among the potential immortals. If even one of the immortals has even the slightest amount of altruism, then the technology will be be disseminated to the populace as a whole. The argument against this assumes a zero-sum game in which a gain by the unwashed masses equates to a loss by an immortal. Information doesn't work this way.