(February 15, 2016 at 12:37 am)Excited Penguin Wrote:(February 14, 2016 at 11:31 pm)God of Mr. Hanky Wrote: Oh no, we'd be committing infanticide at record rates, or there would not be sufficient resources to sustain those who just stubbornly refuse to die and make way for new generations. This in turn would cause stagnation of our culture with stalled intellectual progress, art would become lifeless and boring, and then why would anyone want to go on living anyway?
The only way of avoiding the above scenario, short of sending billions of people to colonize the planet, or board a generation ship to the stars (a one-way journey in any case since there's no safe return to Earth gravity after a few years, so who wants to volunteer?) is to impose an arbitrary and mandatory cap on the human life-span. Ever see this movie?
Your argument is irrational. The whole point of reproduction is so that a species can survive. Ensuring indefinite lifespans would be the best way to do that.
As for your stagnation scenario, I find it ridiculous and baseless.
Ha. Logan's Run! I loved that movie, I wish they would re-do it - and do it BETTER.
But can we revisit this population/immortality (or extended life span) question one more time?
OP, as of right now, the World Population stands at 7.5 billion - or just under. During the 20th century alone, the population in the world has grown from 1.65 billion to 6 billion. That is a HUGE increase. We really don't have the resources to handle our current population, and if it keeps rising, we're in trouble. You propose extended life-spans (and greater levels of health, and more efficient healthcare, I'm assuming), which sounds quite lovely. But Hanky is right. With current population growth and extended life-spans, that population increase becomes a terrible problem.
A much, much . . . much! . . . lower birth rate would be absolutely required. Or, as Hanky said . . . colonization. Neither sound like a bad idea to me. What are YOUR suggestions to solve the problem?
And ah, stagnation. You're making me feel old, EP. I'm not at the senior-citizen point yet, but I have seen so many friends die. The world is so very different from the one I knew as a child. (Better, but different.) I fight to keep up with scientific and technological advances. It is very easy for me to understand, now . . . what my older family members meant when they said "this isn't my world anymore". I find technological advance exciting - - I would like to see the world of 2095, for example - - but would I be able to happily live in it? People who live to be 95 often say that they are "tired". I have often wondered how much of that is physical and how much is mental - because it definitely is both.
"The family that prays together...is brainwashing their children."- Albert Einstein