We Were Taught to Call Death a Blessing

Most people confuse age with aging, because aging is still unavoidable, and as it's always been the case, it looks like it will remain so forever. But that's wrong. The outlook is different now. Yet, unfortunately, most still see it as unavoidable. Everybody should watch The Fable of The Dragon Tyrant: [VIDEO]

All attempts to cure aging have been magic/religion-based until very recently. Also it's not like we "learned to fly" as if cavemen could have done it had they only known the right wing shape and arm technique. It was only possible because of an accumulation of industrial and scientific knowledge. Significant life extension will likely be built off the same accumulation of knowledge, not some rainforest frog extract the ancients could have refined. The only way I can imagine we don't have this in 1000 years is if someone's nuke finger gets twitchy. Want to accelerate research? Make "The Fable of the Dragon-Tyrant" required reading/watching for all schoolchildren: [VIDEO] (That this might be controversial is itself interesting.)

CGP gray's videos on YouTube are maybe the most concise and fun to watch materials I've seen on the subject. [LINK] [VIDEO] And you'll be surprised how many people _are_ indeed thinking about all of the outcomes. Have in mind though that as with any technology it is not good or bad, and if it is possible someone will do it sooner or later. It makes no sense to not do it as your adversaries will, and then they'll dictate how it is used, probably not to your liking. If you develop it first you can talk and deliberate at your leisure and find solutions that look much better to you and yours.

That's very easy to say until it's your partner, mother/father, or child on the other side of that assertion. If you're curious and have time, I'd suggest the following excellent exploration of the idea of extinguishing natural death by CGP Grey. He uses an interesting analogy to help challenge the ingrained belief that natural death is just [VIDEO]

I've always found this to be an interesting topic. See here for more: [VIDEO] . The argument made there is basically that death (human aging, at any rate) is a sort of condition, or disease, if you will, like any other, that could be solved if we plied it with enough resources. Maybe the real question is where on the scale the extension to life happens? If we keep reaching adulthood, and then elderly, more inhibited lifestyles at the same ages, just prolonging the elderly state via good medical practices, that's one thing. But if we could slow aging in general to extend younger and middle-aged sections of life, that'd be another thing altogether.

"The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death." Well, maybe not the last one, but still an important one. Nick Bostrom has a great story describing the underlying philosophy in the fight against aging: [LINK] And here it is in video form as well: [VIDEO]

"Those who live in the desert learn to worship thirst." — vharuck There's no reason we should accept the consequences of old age without a fight. Donate to SENS, or even better, dedicate your own work to extending human healthspan. See also: The Fable of the Dragon-Tyrant by CGP Grey — [VIDEO]

Try watching videos of old people with Alzheimer's, and try imagining what people will be doing when you are dead to gauge how much your life is worth, and if small risk of dying in a car accident not caused by yourself is acceptable. For me in similar situation answers were not important and acceptable. But if you find that your life is precious to you it still would be better to channel the natural fear of death to more productive venues like [LINK] or much more importantly to donations to [LINK] because we are very close to solving the problem of death for good [VIDEO]