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Comment by xyzzy_plugh | Hacker News Reader

Most billionaires I know would rather leave behind a legacy in the form of charitable foundations, their work, and their families. Squandering their fortune in a vain attempt to extend their own lives is not a widely accepted choice.

Most rich folks would rather preserve their fortune for their offspring or try to make the world a better place. Eventually many people, rich or not, notice that the younger generations are better equipped to run the world.

Not to mention we'd be better off extending human life by preventing and curing diseases and ailments like cancer and heart disease.

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There’s no better legacy than “stopped death and disease from tearing down your grandchildren’s generation and every generation after it.”

I agree with Elon Musk that immortality is actually not great, and would instead lead to a static dystopia. New generations need a chance to put their own stamp on the world.

The new generations would be (and are!) quicker to adapt to and create new norms. It used to be that just a few generations ago the middle and elder generations were the carriers of experience and wisdom vital to thriving in the world. This is still true to a certain extent but new societal norms created in large part thanks to the steady (or exponential) march of technological progress are more easily adapted to by the younger generations.

In addition, term lengths could be placed on more than government roles to prevent excessive solidification of rules and procedures.

The idea is that we learn what to do and what not to do from our elders. The older people are, generally they get more stuck in their ways. Most effective way to pivot generational thinking is with turnover (until we can modulate our brain function better, then all bets are off)

I'd rather have people get stuck in their ways than literally dying. The deaths of billions of people is not an acceptable cost of "progress."

I’d very much enjoy being young forever in a world built on collaboration than eventually die in a world where “the last people to die gets their way”.

Actually thinking about this more. Collaboration might currently be crippled because of age and death. When you know have a few more years to live, you just want to enjoy what you’ve had. When you have another 1000+ you can take a few to invest into “getting caught up to the times”.

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