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Comment by bryanrasmussen | Hacker News Reader

the worry is of course that in 300 years Mark Zuckerberg will be having his big pan-American birthday part and all the plebes get treated to a 30 minute newsblast about it while eating their gruel.

It's one thing to have music of lower quality, it's another to be old and dying and watching someone who was born a century before you gifted with youth and vitality. It's not hard to envision that situation if the rich have access to anti-aging.

As such it is a scenario basically based off what science fiction says will happen when anti-aging is available. And people feeling that yes, that is what will happen - which spurs their envy.

The envy of this potential future is an expression of the envy of current disparities in income and power heightened by a fear that the future will make those disparities more unbearable and less fixable than they currently are.

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In the scenario you describe what's stopping one of the plebes from killing Zuckerberg?

If Zuckerberg has essentially doomed everyone else to death while he and his kin get to live on perpetually he's basically painted a giant target on his back that every one with 6 months to live on a totally curable terminal brain cancer diagnosis is going to want to hit.

I'm not too worried about this kind of scenario because I know that it's in their greater self interest to let us all have this technology.

Also, if the technology isn't too difficult to implement what will stop people from doing so? If you tell me at age 50 that there's a cure for aging you can bet I'll spend my remaining 30 years to find that cure, if not for me, than for rmy children and grand children.

>In the scenario you describe what's stopping one of the plebes from killing Zuckerberg?

Lots of people want to kill lots of different Billionaires, but billionaires ain't dropping like flies.

>very one with 6 months to live on a totally curable terminal brain cancer diagnosis is going to want to hit.

unless getting a terminal brain cancer makes people John Wick in the universe this movie is taking place in, I don't think that's how the plot will play out.

That is so short-sighted. Practically all technological breakthroughs are expensive during the discovery and R&D process. Over time, engineering makes things more affordable at scale. And markets free to respond to supply and demand are the catalyst to make it work.

I'm sorry, you're arguing that immortality, something that would probably cause all sorts of upheavals in society, will slide through the system in the same way as a new improved way for cutting your lawn.

This of course is my reference to science fiction, people in relation to this particular subject have worries that are dystopia-fodder, which I have to admit may also be silly but will probably be closer to what will happen then betting it will work the same as the process that ended up giving everyone a personal computer.

> it's another to be old and dying and watching someone who was born a century before you gifted with youth and vitality.

So, no one can have nicers things than me?

That depends entirely on whether or not they're intentionally witholding it from me.

If someone had a cure for your child's cancer in your hands and they gloated at you while saying "you no get" I'm pretty sure you're going to take whatever steps necessary to "get"

More likely you'll see all people rent organs; surprisingly EVEN poor people don't usually like death.

Sure, Society in its majestic equality will allow rich and poor people alike to rent a new bio-heart with youthenating agents for 1 million dollars a month.

I would hate to have to rely on society to provide services like that. Chances are nobody except the top political brass ever gets their bio-heart.

Thankfully, society in its majestic equality allows all people to establish or invest into startups. Total addressable market at $1M/month is much smaller than at $1k/month, which is still much smaller than at $100/month.

Assuming the expenses are low enough to still give the company a healthy and IMHO fair 20-50% profit margin at $1k/month or $100/month, it'd be dumb to price it at $1M/month. There would be thousands if not millions of companies offering this service - and a race to the bottom of the pricing.

Think about cars - companies are competing on lower prices and better features of these complex machines. There are many models for different kinds of buyers - not just a single option at $1M/month that'd allow the rich to move around.

Kings died from infection and even criminals who practiced great evils are cured. You sound like you practice making scenarios where you're unhappy.

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