> It is right that my life will end. It is right that the old must clear the way for the young and the new. It is the way of things.
Lots of people say that but it's because we are resigned to it. We don't have a choice about growing old and dying.
Just imagine for a minute though that some life extension technology began to really work and could dramatically extend lifespan or prevent aging. Almost everyone who was resigned to aging and death would have a change of heart and would be demanding arbitrarily long lifespans and freedom from aging.
Does even radical life extension technology "fix" this? If I live a year longer or until the heat-death of the universe, I still face the same existential questions... and I'll still feel like it flew by and wonder where it all went.
I existed. Compared to that fact, the duration is nearly meaningless.
> > It is right that my life will end. It is right that the old must clear the way for the young and the new. It is the way of things.
> Lots of people say that but it's because we are resigned to it. We don't have a choice about growing old and dying.
hm, maybe, but that doesn't explain the steep and quick change in my attitude towards the perspective of my own death after my first child was born. i realized how much of the feeling is "the other side" of my sex drive: our primary purpose in life is to procreate so our genes can carry on. once that's fulfilled, the fretting washes away very quickly.
Lots of people say that but it's because we are resigned to it. We don't have a choice about growing old and dying.
Just imagine for a minute though that some life extension technology began to really work and could dramatically extend lifespan or prevent aging. Almost everyone who was resigned to aging and death would have a change of heart and would be demanding arbitrarily long lifespans and freedom from aging.