The Men Who Want to Live Forever(nytimes.com)
nytimes.com
The Men Who Want to Live Forever
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/25/opinion/sunday/silicon-valley-immortality.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=opinion-c-col-left-region®ion=opinion-c-col-left-region&WT.nav=opinion-c-col-left-region
11 comments
It's frustrating that the author takes what is a reasonable field for humans to research and conflates it with some kind of sexist drive for domination. Personally I feel like this sort of hogwash (the author even stops short of saying "as a mother") undermines the credibility of the NYT.
Completely agree, what does anti-aging research have to do with sexual harassment and gender equality? The article seems like a feminist excuse to vent about female victimhood.
It would much more interesting if the focus was on the societal/inequality angle that it's billionaires (who, yes, are mostly men) who are seeking to extend their dominance by living longer.
It would much more interesting if the focus was on the societal/inequality angle that it's billionaires (who, yes, are mostly men) who are seeking to extend their dominance by living longer.
> feminist excuse to vent about female victimhood
Please don't post ideological flamebait to HN. The GP comment managed to stay on the ok side of the line. Your comment did not.
Please don't post ideological flamebait to HN. The GP comment managed to stay on the ok side of the line. Your comment did not.
I agree. I support women and equality as a left-leaning progressive, but as a techy and someone who wants to see light-speed travel and our first encounter with alien life-- the only way for that to happen is life extension, heck even as an avatar in a computer would be better than nothing.
This article drew me in because I'm obsessed with anti-aging tech, but to take something that isn't all evil, and twist it is horrible. I think the biggest issue is income inequality personally, --when the rich DO figure out immortality, it may only be accessible to the billionaire class at which point -- they're essentially giving everyone else a death sentence.
This article drew me in because I'm obsessed with anti-aging tech, but to take something that isn't all evil, and twist it is horrible. I think the biggest issue is income inequality personally, --when the rich DO figure out immortality, it may only be accessible to the billionaire class at which point -- they're essentially giving everyone else a death sentence.
This won’t happen.
1. Pharmaceutical companies want people to take it.
2. Insurance companies would want humans to take it.
3. Once a drug is invented, if it is kept hidden or secret, the people who administer the drug would want it for their families. There would be whistle blowers, there would be leaks.
As soon as it is leaked labs in China or India or anywhere would reproduce it and longevity tourism would ensue.
1. Pharmaceutical companies want people to take it.
2. Insurance companies would want humans to take it.
3. Once a drug is invented, if it is kept hidden or secret, the people who administer the drug would want it for their families. There would be whistle blowers, there would be leaks.
As soon as it is leaked labs in China or India or anywhere would reproduce it and longevity tourism would ensue.
Ok but what if it's just really expensive?
You know, like healthcare, or trips to the moon.
People with a lot of money get access to things before people without a lot of money.
You know, like healthcare, or trips to the moon.
People with a lot of money get access to things before people without a lot of money.
Like micro processors, the marginal cost of manufacturing a drug is minimal. The R&D is the expensive bit.
Even gene therapy, is primarily bounded by R&D and then delivery may or may not be expensive, I don’t know.
Even gene therapy, is primarily bounded by R&D and then delivery may or may not be expensive, I don’t know.
Man, this "article" is the worst sort of garbage. It's nothing but a thin veneer over yet another "men are evil" diatribe. This tripe doesn't even rise to the level of being good yellow journalism.
It’s New York Times what do you expect?
Fortunately reading articles isn’t necessary for a good discussion on Hackernews.
Fortunately reading articles isn’t necessary for a good discussion on Hackernews.
This piece is like a sentiment more than a real inquiry. The argument is based on avoiding any particulars. The fact is that life extension is not just a way for Peter Thiel to walk the earth forever; it is a set of medical interventions. If you're not against penicillin or bypass surgeries, what particular life extension techniques are you against?
I'm not a body, I'm a mind running on a body!
Food for thought is that life extension treatments once developed will ultimately be cheaper and safer than hospital care. So they'll be compulsory, in effect. Or rather everyone will continually face the question: more extension, or voluntary euthanasia? No more waiting around to die. Purpose, metaphysics, mental health all brought into sharp focus.
Food for thought is that life extension treatments once developed will ultimately be cheaper and safer than hospital care. So they'll be compulsory, in effect. Or rather everyone will continually face the question: more extension, or voluntary euthanasia? No more waiting around to die. Purpose, metaphysics, mental health all brought into sharp focus.
You actually aren’t a mind. You are what is observing the mind.
Not relevant to life extension, but I think what you're saying amounts to the fact that the mind is more complex than most minds assume. (Perhaps including than you assume. For doesn't it require a mind to observe things, even itself?)
I feel like a mind can observe itself as long as there is some feedback control...
You are not your thoughts
I believe that death is a part of life.
edit: guess I touched a nerve, but please have some respect. I wasn't being facetious, just so you know. I lost a newborn brother at age 5 and my father at age 11, so I've experienced death. I've grieved deeply. Yes there's tragedy in death. I can't and won't invalidate that. But there is so much more to death than tragedy. And more often than not, the tragedy is rooted in unfulfilled lives, not in death itself. I don't see how longer lifespans are going to magically cure the bigger problem of unfulfilling life habits being normalized, even enforced. There are too many people on this planet who haven't made peace with death, and who externalize their fear onto others. I believe this is the author's point. You downvote me without asking any questions? Call the author a luddite? I imagine you are someone who hasn't made peace with death and the forces of evolution. I urge you to face it from a fresh angle, to have courage and take a good look, it's not a monster unless you make it be.
And honestly, people who treated my father's death like a monster kinda traumatized me. They encouraged me to idolize my father in a way that distracted me from his wonderful, raw humanity, both in living and dying.
P.S. If anyone open minded wants an interesting perspective on death, check out the book "Living Your Dying" by Stanley Keleman.
edit: guess I touched a nerve, but please have some respect. I wasn't being facetious, just so you know. I lost a newborn brother at age 5 and my father at age 11, so I've experienced death. I've grieved deeply. Yes there's tragedy in death. I can't and won't invalidate that. But there is so much more to death than tragedy. And more often than not, the tragedy is rooted in unfulfilled lives, not in death itself. I don't see how longer lifespans are going to magically cure the bigger problem of unfulfilling life habits being normalized, even enforced. There are too many people on this planet who haven't made peace with death, and who externalize their fear onto others. I believe this is the author's point. You downvote me without asking any questions? Call the author a luddite? I imagine you are someone who hasn't made peace with death and the forces of evolution. I urge you to face it from a fresh angle, to have courage and take a good look, it's not a monster unless you make it be.
And honestly, people who treated my father's death like a monster kinda traumatized me. They encouraged me to idolize my father in a way that distracted me from his wonderful, raw humanity, both in living and dying.
P.S. If anyone open minded wants an interesting perspective on death, check out the book "Living Your Dying" by Stanley Keleman.
Crying over the loss of 4 of your 8 children used to be a part of life a century ago. We changed that, and can change what it means to age as well, if luddites like the author of this article can be overcome.
This argument could just as well be made against life saving medicines like antibiotics. Death is a part of life. Let's not fight it.
This adds nothing to the discussion.
What utter garbage, twisting the desire for longer lives into some sort of sexist oppression? Sure these billionaires can afford to fund this research, but if longer and healthier lives was possible, would you really want to die?
Zero mentions of Ray Kurzweil in this story.
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Some billionaires, already invincible in every other way, have decided that they also deserve not to die.
I think a simple poll would find that practically no one feels they deserve to die.
I think a simple poll would find that practically no one feels they deserve to die.
I know old people who are ready to die and in that sense feel that they've earned it, insofar as they've put in a good life, have struggled through old age, and would like to get to the end of it all. Not suicidal, but ready to move on to whatever is next.
I agree this is not what the author intends by the term, but your comment "no one feels they deserve to die" is too absolutist, at least in my experience.
I agree this is not what the author intends by the term, but your comment "no one feels they deserve to die" is too absolutist, at least in my experience.
There's a difference between thinking you deserve not to die and merely not thinking you deserve to die.
My worry is if it is discovered it might be kept secret and only available to the uber-rich.
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