Imagine a world in which Xi, Kim Jong *, and a host of other wealthy dictators were immortal, and the rest of us pee-ons were not. I believe that is the future of high tech immortality.
All medical advancements that enhance or prolong life get to be used first by wealthy individuals. Eventually, they reduce in price and reach more people.
Just because only a few people could afford a CT scan when it first came out doesn’t mean we shouldn’t keep developing it for the wife benefits we will see in the future.
Mind backups do nothing for me. Imagine if your airplane ran out of fuel over the ocean. You're going to crash and die, so you get on the radio, and air traffic control says "don't worry, your estate already restored a backup of your mind into a cloned body. just go ahead and plow into the water at full speed, the new you is already awake and seems happy and comfortable."
Would you think "whew, I really dodged a bullet there", or would you think "fuck that clone, I don't want to die!" ?
I can't grasp this view point. A clone with a "mind upload" is more like a twin. You'll still die and will not exist anymore to see what you're clone/twin does.
wow. so you're perfectly at peace with death if someone convincingly tells you that your family won't be able to tell the difference between the old you and your clone?
I think we'll see anti-aging treatments before that happens, so yes, a shot in the face would probably be effective until the singularity comes. Then a shot in the face will become some powershell script.
hm... but wouldn't they still fear death-experience? also, mind-on-usb != my-mind imho... (it could be a ctrl-c,v of my mind, but can be said as someone else with my thoughts?)
I've been thinking about this lately too, it almost feels like we're here already.
I often read stories about innocent younger people dying from something tragic; However, why do I almost never wake up to, "<evil tyrannical dictator> has unexpectedly and peacefully passed away in their sleep?"
I don't think immortal is the right word here. You can still die from physical harm, no matter how many stem cells you consume. So in theory if someone abused the pee-ons for enough time, probably one of them would get mad enough to overthrow the power. Just like many revolutions throughout history.
Most dynasties in history were overthrown by competing heirs, not the people. It is actually very rare for dictatorships to turn into democracies. Many reigns only end in death. Do you think Putin will ever be overthrown?
It is actually very rare for dictatorships to turn into democracies.
In the last half century give or take some years, half of Europe and Latin America nations have successfully and peacefully made this transition. And only Venezuela has returned to dictatorship.
Do you think Putin will ever be overthrown?
No idea. Formal democracy is still in place, so there's hope.
Universal suffrage is as recent as 1906, and only for male voters was introduced in American and French revolutions. So with some back and forth, (modern, real) democracy has been steadly advancing since it was born two centuries ago, with a much clearer trend last half century.
No, because he:
a) has a very high approval rating,
b) minimized a lot of corruption problems for Russia where people were stealing absolutely everywhere after the soviet collapse
c) does not commit humanitarian crimes
I'm not involved in any way, but from the news I watch, both a) and c) claims are debatable. I guess he's not worse than what he replaced, but that doesn't make him good. At least that's the spin in the media in my country, possibly very biased for a lot of reasons.
nah, I’m imagining a different world. I get bored with always imagining the world where “only the rich...”.
At any rate, very few people are actually working on “immortality”. Most of us squander our time bullshitting on the Internet. There’s little danger of solving immortality for several generations.
And clearly death doesn't end the dictatorship.