Re: Why Do We Die?

Anders Sandberg (asa@nada.kth.se)
02 Feb 1999 13:32:31 +0100

Ian Goddard <Ian@Goddard.net> writes:

> Why do we die?
>
> Maybe because a steady flow of new people is the only way
> for new social structures, paradigms, and ideas to evolve,
> which may in turn maximize the chance of the survival of life.

This is a common answer, but rather non-transhumanistic. Can't we change without having people die? We want our ideas to die instead of us.

> As Nobel physicist Max Plank said about evolution in science:
>
> "A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its
> opponents and making them see the light, but rather because
> its opponents eventually die, and a new generation grows
> up that is familiar with the idea from the beginning."

He was probably (not necessarily completely) joking. There are plenty of revolutions in science that occur much faster than people die off. Just look at quantum mechanics, relativity, Gödel's theorem and so on.

-- 
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Anders Sandberg                                      Towards Ascension!
asa@nada.kth.se                            http://www.nada.kth.se/~asa/
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