Who Wants to Live Forever?

Fight Aging!

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Rainbough Phillips at Catallarchy quotes some of Aubrey de Grey's writings on radical life extension, commenting:

I do not know if I would like to live forever, however, I suspect I will have an answer to that question after my first thousand years. Hopefully the answer will be: Why not?

There is a discussion in the comments to this post as to whether death is a good thing. Sadly, I think I am becoming inured to the ridiculous nature of these sorts of propositions: "mass death and shorter life spans are a wonderful thing: discuss." I am no longer rendered aghast at the way in which people of all stripes try to justify allowing the ongoing death toll to continue unabated. I see it all the time, and I'm all too aware that we need to step up our efforts at education and advocacy for healthy life extension and serious anti-aging research.

At least one comment reflects some of my views on the subject:

Doesn't matter a damn how good or bad it is for "scientific progress". Ending death from old age is good regardless, and society will just have to adjust.
Pro-death people should all go commit suicide, so as to demonstrate the sincerity of their views.

I think that we should all now go and read The Fable of the Dragon-Tyrant by philosopher Nick Bostrom. Death and aging are truly monsters, and we become monsters ourselves by accepting and defending these conditions rather than fighting to end them.