From: Anders Sandberg (asa@nada.kth.se)
Date: Wed Jun 16 1999 - 10:26:36 MDT
Spike Jones <spike66@ibm.net> writes:
> I have struggled with this Dan. If there is discovered a magic
> anti-aging pill, the inventor is in grave danger I fear. Should she
> decide to hoard the invention for herself and family, the unwashed
> masses may feel a bit of, um, murderous rage. Should she
> disseminate the knowledge, we all face long life and an immediate
> threat of overpopulation, caused by the momentum of the human
> reproductive urge. The good part is that it will lead to space
> exporation with a new... enthusiasm. {8^D spike
First, magic anti-aging pills are just that, magic. It is not very
likely that the solution to aging to be something simple and
discovered by a single person - more like the culmination of many
treatments discovered, refined and implemented by the biomedical
community over many decades.
The problem in the above scenario is that you assume an instant
discovery which society is completely unprepared for. Not impossible,
but I'm not sure how likely it is. The problem is more that society is
currently still reeling from future shock and not handling new
developments well (look at cloning, xenografts and the Internet), so
even fairly slow developments can be shocking. This is the area where
we transhumanists actually can shine (and earn $$$), by helping
society to adapt to changes and keep an eye open for the surprises.
Finally, it should be noted that if anti-aging becomes available it is
not unreasonable to think that child production would drop instead of
rise, as people felt they had more time to build their families in,
less need of a pension security in the form of dutiful children and
more fun investing their money in their own long lives. Also,
overpopulation is a rather slow process and mainly a matter of
politics and economics rather than actual lack of resources. Another
field where we might be of help with our radical ideas?
-- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Anders Sandberg Towards Ascension! asa@nada.kth.se http://www.nada.kth.se/~asa/ GCS/M/S/O d++ -p+ c++++ !l u+ e++ m++ s+/+ n--- h+/* f+ g+ w++ t+ r+ !y
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