From: gts (gts@optexinc.com)
Date: Tue Sep 03 2002 - 15:49:03 MDT
Michael F Dickey wrote:
> Is your definition of immortal 'not capable
> of being killed'?
Yes, of course. To be immortal is to be immune from death.
> Extropians and transhumanists tend to use immortal in a
> sense that they are not predestined to an upward limit
> of life expectancy...
I don't know that "predestination" has anything to do with the problem.
I certainly would like to agree that our deaths are not predestined
(i.e., not predetermined), and I support with great optimism any attempt
to extend human life expectancy. However I think the question of
determinism is a completely separate philosophical problem, and one
about which intelligent people are unlikely to find any consensus. That
debate has been raging for centuries with no sign of resolution.
I agree that if immortal beings should ever come to exist then they will
nevertheless die at the end of the universe (if such an end occurs) but
aside from that special case I think we need to accept that immortality
is defined as a condition that precludes death from all causes. Those
subject to death are mortal. Those not subject to it are immortal. If
these are not the meanings of "mortal" and "immortal" then neither word
has descriptive value.
> Quantum tunneling does not imply such a limit as
> one merely needs to replace damanged parts faster
> than the rate of damage. Considering how
> slow Quantum tunneling damage accumulates, this will not be
> an issue.
I don't believe that has been established. These hypothetical repair
mechanisms that will generate and replace damaged parts are themselves
subject to the same kind of decay they are designed to repair. This
implies a need for second-order repair mechanisms, which will of course
also be subject to the decay. So then we must have third-order and
forth-order repair mechanisms, ad infinitum. In a bounded universe we
eventually we run out of time and resources. The house of cards comes
falling down.
-gts
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