Re: Accepting mortality WAS bickering

From: Giu1i0 Pri5c0 (pgptag@gmail.com)
Date: Tue Aug 01 2006 - 01:15:53 MDT


Very much agree with Phil.
Learning how to accept what we cannot change may be wisdom, and I
think it is understandable that past generations have forced
themselves to accept death with statements like "death gives meaning
to life" and similar nonsense.
But now we are beginning to see that maybe someday soon we CAN change
the fact that people die. So death is no longer an abstract issue, but
an engineering problem to solve.
G.

On 7/31/06, Philip Goetz <philgoetz@gmail.com> wrote:
> On 7/26/06, Olie Lamb <neomorphy@gmail.com> wrote:
> > Below...
> >
> > I've long thought it a pity that Transhumanists-in-general put such
> > emphasis on staving off death. An excessive fear of death has long
> > seemed to me to be an indicator of... I don't know whether
> > "childishness" or "lack of wisdom" is the better way to put it.
>
> I've long thought it a pity that non-transhumanists equate trying to
> conquer death with a childish fear of death and a lack of wisdom.
> This is like saying Sir Edmund Hillary had a childish fear of
> mountains.
>
> There are reasons why over-attachment to one personal consciousness is
> problematic... but I'm unlikely to discuss them with someone who says
> that accepting mortality is wisdom. Not because that statement is
> wrong, but because, in decades of discussing the matter, I have so far
> found that
> a) many people explain their acceptance of mortality as wisdom, and
> b) not one of those people was wise.
>
> - Phil
>



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