RE: Death Is An Outrage

From: Reason (reason@exratio.com)
Date: Sat Nov 30 2002 - 18:03:34 MST


--> Hubert Mania

> Robert Bradbury wrote:
>
> > For those of you who were unable to attend the recent Alcor
> > conference, Robert Freitas has produced a copy of his talk
> > that can be accessed on the web.
> > The URL is here:
> > http://www.rfreitas.com/Nano/DeathIsAnOutrage.htm
>
> I admire the work of Freitas. But the first part of this talk
> with its death
> figures is tiring and boring. You could completely delete it
> until slide 35,
> say 3 or 4 sentences about death tolls and then start with the paragraph
> under slide 35. The rest though ist fantastic and worth reading.
>
> That's the trouble with most of these celebrities. They don't
> have or think
> they don't need an editor who is self-condident enough to cut the
> manuscript
> to make it digestible.

You have to remember that 95% of the people in the world would see it the
other way round -- slides 1-35 are striking, thought-provoking. Most people
haven't got to the "death = bad" stage yet. The rest of the presentation
then completely tunes them out. If I were reprinting on the Longevity Meme
in an abbreviated format, I'd keep 1-70 or so, the last couple, and simply
refer the reader to more complete sources rather than talk about nanotech in
the middle.

The choir already gets it. It's the rest of the world that needs convincing.
As I've said before, without popular mainstream knowledge of and support for
life extension, it's by no means a clear cut case that even the young
amongst us are going to live far longer.

Reason
http://www.exratio.com/



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