July 4th, 2004
A Conversation With Aubrey de Grey
Aubrey de Grey is very much an advocate at heart, as illustrated by recent conversation in the comments section of a Mystery Achievement post expressing opposition to healthy life extension. This was in the wake of his interview at Tech Central Station, and is worth reading.
(I commented on that post here at the Longevity Meme, since I'm not fond of the Blogspot comment interface).
The conversation should continue in the comments of this newer post.
The problem with people like mystery achiever and other like him is their complete failure to understand that immortality is really about freedom. Its about being able to live life without any limits or time constraint. If you want to take 5-10 years to do a start-up in Singapore, you can. If you want to hang out on Boracay for a few months, you can. If you worked as a semiconductor process engineer for the past 15 years and now want to pursue a career in biotech or nanotech, you can.
The people who are opposed to immortality, for some reason, fail to grasp the freedom aspect of immortality.
I can understand people like Leon Kass because these people grew up in a conservative time when people got married out of school and did not, say, go to India and live in a commune for 5 years at a stretch. They lack the immagination to understand the life-style freedom of immortality.
Perhaps "mystery achiever" is of the same generation as Leon Kass. He (she) may be in their 60's or 70's and have the same lack of immagination as Leon Kass.
I really do believe that the opponents of life-extension are people who have never lived an expansive, open life and, therefor, lack the immagination to live such a life.
Reason:
I apologize for my user-hostile comments interface. As soon as I can get around to it, I will install HaloScan or some other system. You are always welcome to email me.
Kurt: I have enjoyed reading and responding to your posts. Please feel free to stop by again.
r/someguy (the mystery achiever) :)