Radical Life Extension and the Singularity
I agree with this point made by Michael Anissimov. The technological Singularity - in its older, more useful definition relating to information and intelligence - has little to do with greatly extended longevity. "Radical life extension (people living to 100, 200, 300, and beyond) seems very plausible to me, and I believe that we are going to be experiencing this ourselves in our lifetimes, unless an existential disaster occurs. A Berkeley demographer found that maximum lifespan of human beings is increasing at an accelerating rate. However, life extension has very little, if anything, to do with the Singularity, other than that the Singularity is sometimes associated with technological progress and that technological progress may result in radically extended lifespans. This is somewhat like how house mice are somewhat associated with raccoons because both live in areas dense with human populations." This is a useful reminder that a future of greater healthy life extension is not a given: the future doesn't arrive on a conveyor belt, delivered deus ex machina. Desired futures are only achieved when we band together and help to make them real.