[hakakadera]

> "Who can afford, in our modern society, to master the latest developments of String Theory and what's going on in philosophy with its many areas and subareas, all of this at the same time?"

When science achieves quantifiable improvements to average human lifespan, our take on life too will change.

[GFK_of_xmaspast]

> When science achieves quantifiable improvements to average human lifespan

You mean like it's done over the last couple hundred years?

[hakakadera]

> You mean like it's done over the last couple hundred years?

Yes, imagine the world before penicillin and after it. They are not the same.

[marcosdumay]

Almost every area of science is expanding faster than anybody can study it. With increased lifespan, expect increased specialization.

[hakakadera]

> "With increased lifespan, expect increased specialization."

This is an interesting point. "Advancement" doesn't mean the fields are only getting narrower. Advancement means having to deal with increasing number of multi-disciplinary fields. So, the expectancy of convergence is positive.

With marginal increase of lifespan one may only see specialization. But if one dares to imagine a 1.5x to 2x lifespan, the meaning of "time" will change.

All economical decisions are also subconsciously factoring lifespan, with a mental model of "division by time" to see if something is worth that fraction of their life.

The imbalance created by say a 1.5x or 2x rise in lifespan will surely make way for more scientific enlightenment of masses.

Edit: corrected word "Specialization" into "Advancement"