Only 79… far from a complete human experience. It’s incredibly sad how little time we get here, especially the best of us.
Sorry for the tangent, but this is a pet peeve of mine. From my perspective, it seems like our modern quest for safety in all things has the effect of wrapping the whole world, and ourselves, in bubble wrap. The goal seems to be to extend that number as far as possible, without regard to how the life that we experience during that period is diminished by all the safeguards.
It bothers me that we've made it a mantra, telling each other "have a safe trip", or "be safe", and so on. I can't remember anyone saying "have the richest experience you can manage".
At just 60 ~ 90 years, a rut of a single decade can take up > 15% of your lifespan.
I learned a lot about Craig Venter after reading My Life Decoded in college. Truly an amazing person.
Average life expectancy for males in the US is 76.5 years. During the pandemic it dipped below 74. So he was definitely already on the lucky side of the distribution. He also famously once said: "If you want immortality, do something meaningful with your life."
It seems you’re judging his life solely on the age when he died rather than all the things he did.
It's not that outlandish: sharks, turtles, etc get far more years than we do.
It's shocking all billionaires aren't devoting all their resources to solving this cosmic crime against humanity.
Edit: Maybe there wouldn't be nilihism, but I don't think you could get more fulfilled with the extra time. I feel like an insect that lives 24 hours and a shark that lives several hundred have an equal feeling of accomplishment.
A Craig Venter that lives (a healthy life) to 158 is quite likely to accomplish at least 1 more great thing than one who lives to 79.
As someone who occasionally works with terminal patients, I've never seen that in practice. In reality most people desperately wish that they could carry on living, and have plenty of unfinished business that they'd like to see through. The only exception I've seen is when someone is in so much pain that they just want to end the suffering.
If we turn your argument on its head, a person who dies at 20 is just as fulfilled as a person who dies at 79. So why should anyone bother trying to live a long and healthy life?
Ever heard of Chesterton's fence? I don't believe we are more clever than our mother, the computational machinery of the universe. If we remove death, there will be great consequence.
Heck, it's arguable that the slow decline and death spiral we're in on this planet (empathatically NOT just human well-being metrics here), that this is already due to pushing death back, and systematically allowing power/opportunity to accumulate ever more deeply at scale of the selfish individual...
I kind of think that's what is behind some people versus others—those that have an intrinsic, constant sense of the brevity of life are the ones that try to experience life to the fullest.
Right now the most ambitious projects people start barely scratch a decade or two.
With that having been said a lot of the health industry is fraud
Anyway, this conversation has been had repeatedly. Many people seem to be unable to imagine that positive benefit of much longer lives.
Suppose that’s why “Science advances one funeral at a time.”