From: Ken Kittlitz (ken@audesi.com)
Date: Mon Jan 18 1999 - 12:28:04 MST
At 11:03 AM 1/18/99 -0500, Michael S. Lorrey wrote:
>Since nature is only concerned with the reproduction of the species,
Depends what you mean by "nature". If you mean genes, then the above is not
true. Genes are the units of replication, not species.
>Arguably the fact
>that humans can live so long past their reproductive age indicates that humans
>living after reproductive age impart positive evolutionary benefits upon
others
>reproducing
Correct.
>so living longer than nature is capable of (humans are, in fact, one
>of the longest lived animals, thus indicating that we already push the
>limits of what nature is capable of) may increase this benefit, provided
that people are
>able to be productive self sufficient individuals. Moreover, life extension
>also includes the desire to be able to reproduce far longer than currently
possible,
>thus increasing our capacity to meet the goal of nature, to reproduce.
Ah, but now you are second-guessing what nature wants. Such hubris! Given
the massive variation in mammalian life-spans, it seems likely that death
through old age is something nature approves of. More exactly, the genes
that have been responsible for the evolution of a given species have
selected a life-span for that species that best allows their replication.
Who are we to change that?
Even if we did, and were right, why stop there? Why not adjust our
digestive systems? After all, an all-meat or all-vegan diet might yield
more descendents, on average.
Now that I think of it, the logical thing to do would be construct a better
replicator than those that currently exist, let it take over the Earth and
give it the means to expand into space. Existing replicator vehicles, such
as ourselves, will no doubt be consumed, but so what? We will have
fulfilled nature's will.
>So you see, natural law can fit just fine into life extension.
...or into the extinction of all existing species by a better replicator
that we design. Ready to start working on it?
------
Ken Kittlitz Administrator, Foresight Exchange
AudeSi Technologies Inc. http://www.ideosphere.com
http://www.audesi.com personal: http://www.wendigo.com
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