From: Robert J. Bradbury (bradbury@aeiveos.com)
Date: Wed Aug 20 2003 - 11:50:41 MDT
On Wed, 20 Aug 2003, BJKlein wrote:
> On the other hand, how would you approach this topic when speaking to a
> group of people already in agreement that life extension is good, yet they
> are still not totally sure as to why living forever may be important?
Well, first one has to acknowledge that "living forever" may not
*the* most important thing. Particularly if it turns out we cannot
get out of, or shift, the laws of this universe and protons & neutrons
do indeed decay. Then all bets are off.
So one seeks a life perhaps of "relative values". I would say that
one might consider three possible motivations:
a) Reproduction. This is the one most species terrestrial or alien
are probably programmed with. It is essential for a non-directed
evolution and complexification of the universe (see (c)).
b) Fun. This gets into Eliezer's "Fun Theory". How do you maximize
the amount of fun you can have in life for however long you are alive?
[For me this seems to require that I reinvent myself from time to time.]
c) Complexification. This is in line with the Extropy Institute's
principles and the desirability of defeating entroy to the greatest
degree that one can. It is perhaps an "artistic" creation (or expression)
of advanced technological civilizations. Conscious (directed) evolution
may be able to trump natural (undirected) evolution [e.g. (a)].
I don't know about others, but if I knew the Universe were going to
ultimately trump me -- I'd be placing a very high emphasis on (b) and
(c) just to be able to say "neener, neener, neener" to the Universe.
The reason that life extension is good is that it would seem
to provide for greater opportunities for (a/b/c) [with some limits
perhaps on (a)].
Others might provide additional interesting perspectives -- I would
doubt that my list is complete. For example, "curiosity" might be
added to the list. I know that things that motivate me include
what the 4 probes heading for Mars will discover?, what will Cassini
discover?, what *really* are the defects that cause aging?, whether
we will really one day construct a space elevator?, whether we can
construct an inside-out MBrain that finally figures out the "meaning
of life" as it hurls itself into a Black Hole?, etc. Or one could
simplify things, e.g. Why would one *not* want learn to play every
musical instrument? Why would one *not* want to master every known
sport? etc.
I'll close with citing the very first quote (by Heinlein) from my
quote collection [1].
Robert
1. http://www.aeiveos.com/~bradbury/quotes.html
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