Hacker News Reader

Comment by rpwverheij | Hacker News Reader

Instead you want to avoid/deny eventual natural death for ever? Fight it? To be at peace with the process of aging and the thought of eventually dying is not the same as suicidal thinking.

> I cannot see a world in which this could be deemed healthy.

I cannot see a world in which fighting and avoiding natural death can take healthy forms. All matter decays. All things recycle. We have material bodies, hence we are part of the cycle of life. The old giving way to the new is a necessity for growth & evolution. I would even say it's beautiful. And healthy.

View on HN

To what extent is your view an adaptation to how things are currently (and I agree it can be good to have a positive outlook on things you can't change) and to what extent do you think it's a strong analysis of how things should be?

Let's say a mysterious virus spreads through the population, and edits all our DNA with the only effect that we all suddenly gain negligible senescence - people still die from accidents and acute diseases, but everyone retains the same level of general healthiness as a young adult with no aging. In that situation, would you be advocating that everyone take medicine to turn aging and death from aging back on?

I think we will never agree. I see a death cult, you see acceptance of the natural order of things. It is a fundamental difference in viewpoint.

A death cult? Seriously? The fact I think the inevitability if death a good thing doesn't make me a worshipper. You're just being offensive.

Look, if you want to die, go right ahead. But leave me and my family out of it. We love our lives and each other and I'd like for us to live as long as we can. Proclaiming your disdain research in this field because "death is good" without elaborating on that (and when the obvious conclusion is the exact opposite, see: The deaths of children with cancer, the deaths of world-changing intellectuals like Von Neumann, the eventual deaths of every good person/pet that you know), does not come off in a flattering light for you.

The fact that you think dying is good is a feeling. It is based on an article of faith - it must be, because you cannot make coherent arguments for the necessity of death that aren't either based on faith or other issues that are solvable in ways that don't kill people.

I'm not "just being offensive". Death is harmful, and insisting it must happen is perpetrating death. If you insist this, you are perpetrating a harmful ideology that interferes with research into senescence and therefore contributes to suffering.

You're afraid, I get it. So am I. We'll all die someday. So will everyone and everything, at some point. It's not good or bad. It's not a matter of faith or ideology. It's scary and we don't want it and we fight it with everything we got. That's also a part of being alive.

I'm just concerned with the possibility of us "winning over death" and how it would transform everything. It's not another cure for an illness or another 100 years to live. It's no one ever going away without someone else making them. For better or worse. That's not a part of life. That's an entirely different existence.

I 'm totally with you. Most of human misery, suffering and malice is due to decline, loss, grief and death, and the awareness about them.

People who claim it would be bad to live long are either coping or had a chance at a decent life or believe it would somehow cause unsolvable problems.

Lmao. If we extrapolate your logic to few hundred years ago - you shouldn’t survive over 40 yrs. But I’m sure you can’t wait to retire at 60. So your perspective is simply a result of past scientific work in defeating ‘natural death’. And suddenly you think it’s a bad idea.

Thank you for explaining to me what I expect and think. It's much clearer to me now.

while a rude response, guy above does raise the point of well, yes I'd like to not die at 40. Medicine is good. But the talk of imortality is hubris. Is is to judge oneself the best or most worthy thing, and to deny our children and the nature of progess itself. As medicine has brought us extra life, death and re-generation have brought us us. And as us which have been given, we give to others through our death.

So whats the limit? Its a big question that dosen't need to be answered now, because immortality is not on the table. Another 20 or so years maybe. So maybe lets take care of the world we got before we fall into some delusional sense of godhood. (Just upload yourfselfs bros)

Reply on news.ycombinator.com