I was flippant about the arguments against longevity only because other authors (linked in the appendix) have done such a thorough job of making the case already. The goal of this piece was to help push the longevity discussion past that a bit.
Completely agree that the arguments against longevity should be taken seriously. I just happen to think they're wrong.
Sometimes your post focuses on one thing and the HN discussion finds another aspect more pressing :-)
I fully understand the central role of death in the evolution of life.
At the same time, this is incredibly wasteful for a species like us.
Life is usually preserving knowledge with DNA copies over generations, but individual knowledge is lost and in our case it is not negligible.
Most of it is really lost.
That's the thing. I would choose the same, and I know many others who would. For the people who would prefer to live what they consider to be a "normal" lifespan, they can simply choose to end their life when they want, or not avail themselves of whatever treatments become available to increase lifespan.
So many "anti" arguments against so many things boil down to "I wouldn't want that so you shouldn't get to have it either". Those arguments are tedious and annoying.
I am not sure if it’s wasteful. In the current context maybe.
Nonetheless, learning is still a long and painful process, even when it is about knowledge that has been known for centuries. And when a master in a field dies, his unique mix of knowledge and views dies with him, without any ways to transfer it.
Human language is a powerful tool but still weak and unreliable to transfer knowledge.
Regardless of that, given the veneer of rationality in discussions of this topic (not just this source, but more generally) are there any strong arguments for extending human lifespans? The four reasons following “Because death is bad” (including footnote 4) seem like a superficial analysis based on a cartoonish model/philosophy of life.
Personally, it seems far more useful to think about how we might make human life happier and more meaningful; longevity research seems particularly pointless & banal as it is unlikely to improve well-being in any significant way in and of itself. (I’m not referring to preventing unnatural mortality, but extending median lifespan). (This is somewhat opinionated, and of course, others are welcome to alternative opinions.)