Maddy wrote:The problem with life extension technologies isn't so much the difficulty of getting organs and organ systems to keep going, but whether these technologies will have any practical utility given the seemingly inherent inflexibility of the human psyche and the limitations on its capacity to adapt. As I approach my 60s, I am acutely aware of how fast the world is changing and feel increasingly left behind. (As an aside, I'm not sure that even the youngsters who purport to be able to adapt are faring so well, considering the number of kids on psychotropic drugs and the increasing prevalence of sociopathy in both children and young adults.) The whole concept of neural plasticity is far beyond my level of understanding, but it is nonetheless clear to me that there is a limit on the amount of change an organism can adapt to in a single lifetime, and that adaptation gets harder and harder the older we get. So although I'm as eager as anyone to be as healthy as I possibly can be, I can't say I'm especially interested in an extraordinarily long life. Who wants to live to the ripe old age of 125 if the world as you know it is gone, if your most deeply engrained values are foreign or even repugnant to the society at large, if your skills are no longer valued and needed, if you lack the technological savvy to navigate even the most basic transactions, and if the pace of life has exceeded the pace at which you can function without constant stress?
Well, that is mostly an issue for the Greatest Generation, because they're not going to be able to take advantage of cybernetics over the next couple of decades.... they're simply too old and in sickly condition and just won't be around. I'm honestly not sure about the Baby Boomers -- they're dangerously close to being near or over the cliff edge, but they're also the major driving force for anti-aging technology at present, so who knows? But what you're not perceiving about the future at a "ripe old age" of 125 years is that up to that point we are not going to just simply sit by and remain increasingly limited by our biological boundaries and decay, including the brain. No, we're going to continue to evolve into transhumanists and cyborgs to keep up with the ever increasing pace of development.
But, you still have the freedom of choice at present. Either take the necessary steps to prepare yourself for the new paradigm or resign yourself to eventual obsolecence and death.
I'm not saying it'll be easy (nothing ever worthwhile is), but the rewards will be worth it in ways we can't possibly imagine once we ascend out of the tired old work-breed-die paradigm that is so, so limiting. Don't you want to be living on Mars or a moon or Star Trekking around the solar system by 2050? Well, you can't if you're sickly or dead!
And considering what PS posted recently, it's quite obvious that children will be the competitive force for the rest of us.