[maxwin]

I don't understand why whenever there is a discussion about aging research, people always bring out the problem of us living forever or till the end of the universe. I mean how about just double or triple our lifespan which is nothing wrong and we still have no idea how to do that. I think maybe the reason why so many people is against it is because of religion.

[redleader55]

There's a very famous series of books by Isaac Asimov that deals with this problem - The Robots. Basically once humans are able to increase their life span, they become reluctant to take any risks and the become stuck in their own "immortality". It's no different than what the GP says. Weather it's until the end of the universe or just a few hundred years, we still become more risk adverse and less capable of change.

[xvector]

I do not see this as a bad thing. I would rather live happily ever after than take life-ending risks.

That said, I disagree with the premise. Any true form of immortality would virtualize us. As individuals we would be able to take risks as never before. Paragliding through dangerous canyons? Why not? Worst case scenario your fleshy avatar dies, and you wait a few weeks in a virtual utopia as a new one is printed.

And even that is only if we choose to continue to confine ourselves to human qualia. Being virtualized would enable us to experience the universe in whole new ways - who would want to constrict themselves to mere human experiences ever again?

I think this short story explains these concept really well. Don’t worry about the cliche romance backstory - it was written in 1989: http://www.skyhunter.com/marcs/GentleSeduction.html

[FeepingCreature]

Gonna be honest - once we have backups, I'm totally intending to go into seriously risky behaviors. So this is 100% the opposite of how I intend to live my life.

[vidarh]

The Metamorphosis of Prime Intellect [1] describes a post-singularity world where an AI prevents people from dying permanently, and one woman in protest takes up finding creative ways to kill herself (and getting stopped and patched up each time) and turns it into a sport with a following... I'm sure there would be some people that'd take risks to that extreme.

[1] http://www.localroger.com/prime-intellect/ (with the warning that it is pretty gruesome)

[ta999999171]

So you'll kill yourself doing risky things... and then a clone of your mind will continue your life?

Seems...shortsighted.

[FeepingCreature]

Patternism is the only theory of self consistent with materialist reductionism.

[baddox]

Technology can increase our lifespans and it can also reduce the risk of whatever we’re most worried about. People already use technology to drastically reduce the risk of activities that are desirable for various reasons. Obvious examples include prophylactics for sexual activity and seat belts for automobiles.

[yibg]

People take plenty of risks before the tail end of their life span now. Don’t see why that would change if we live a long time.

[codetrotter]

Double or triple would be fine. I am not religious. The person that I am responding to explicitly said he wanted for life to extend to the end of the universe, so that’s why I am responding with my thoughts about exactly that.

[xvector]

If someone wants to live until the heat death, it’s their prerogative.