It’s just that, in my sci-fi reading experience, the attitudes towards radical life extension always seem to be very conservative
Despite all our posturing as a society about choosing life, etc, we are just a species of death-loving mortalists.
I think this reflects our current culture. A lot of people seem to really think that death is what gives life meaning, and that bitter experiences are good because they make sweet experiences better. (They really need to understand The fable of the dragon-tyrant)
On top of that, even for people that don’t see death as a “positive”, many tend to think of life extension as making aging simply last longer, that you’d continue to get more frail and dotty (or whatever) for another decade or two.
There is fiction that celebrates radical life extension, but it is at least as rare as people that want radical life extension. And, even then, many of those people (myself included) as captured by the idea of uploading or otherwise separating the consciousness from the body, which doesn’t seem to be what you want. https://www.fullmoon.nu/Resurrection/PrimarySpecies.html
many of those people (myself included) as captured by the idea of uploading or otherwise separating the consciousness from the body, which doesn’t seem to be what you want.
We have plenty of examples of consciousness running on meat. I have none of consciousness separate from the body.
I am unconvinced of “meat” being a uniquely-suitable substrate for anything remotely like consciousness. I think the crazy amount of silly things that turn out to be Turning-complete is sufficient evidence that meat is unlikely to be unique.
Tho, certainly, I’m not ready to be the first volunteer to be digitized or whatever.
I think this reflects our current culture. A lot of people seem to really think that death is what gives life meaning, and that bitter experiences are good because they make sweet experiences better. (They really need to understand The fable of the dragon-tyrant)
On top of that, even for people that don’t see death as a “positive”, many tend to think of life extension as making aging simply last longer, that you’d continue to get more frail and dotty (or whatever) for another decade or two.
There is fiction that celebrates radical life extension, but it is at least as rare as people that want radical life extension. And, even then, many of those people (myself included) as captured by the idea of uploading or otherwise separating the consciousness from the body, which doesn’t seem to be what you want. https://www.fullmoon.nu/Resurrection/PrimarySpecies.html
We have plenty of examples of consciousness running on meat. I have none of consciousness separate from the body.
I am unconvinced of “meat” being a uniquely-suitable substrate for anything remotely like consciousness. I think the crazy amount of silly things that turn out to be Turning-complete is sufficient evidence that meat is unlikely to be unique.
Tho, certainly, I’m not ready to be the first volunteer to be digitized or whatever.