Oh believe me, I know the mindset. It annoys the hell out of me.

As soon as someone mentions (for instance) hypothetical longevity treatments, some talking head pops up to tell you how it needs to be regulated and probably put on hold while we consider the societal ramifications and how fair it all is and really, philosophically aren't we all 'supposed' to live a certain length of time and that gives meaning to our lives?

And mostly I just want to punch them in the face until they shut up, because people that think like that will be the reason I can't get robot parts and live forever :)

So I can understand if you think it's important to frame the debate in a particular way, though I don't really make the distinction myself between your two categories of things.