Oh I'm fully aware of that. I can't be as active as I use to, I spend a lot of time on philosophy. Studying space and time is a hobby of mine. It's why life surely exists but we're unlikely to ever see it. Since, in the vastness of space and time, countless other civilizations may rise and fall but they are separated by untold stretches of distance both spatial and temporal. I don't think it's out of the question that we could meet one, even perhaps having been born of one, but we'd be lucky to meet more than 1 other set of intelligent beings in our history.... unless we create them ourselves.
To judge is irrelevant. The costs, they too are irrelevant. All that matters is that it is achieved. With immortality the petty concerns of NOW that impede research into it socially and politically would have all the time in the world to resolve. When it comes to longevity the mindset should be to act now and fix later when you have the time.
Even if you float in space for untold centuries... when you have an eternity, something will always appear. Worst comes to worst, you have a lot of time to yourself to think and discover. But you'd have a lot of time to develop and explore as well. A million years alone would be worth the odd thousand here and there with different civilizations. Better yet though is if your civilization itself develops immortality and it isn't an isolated occurrence. You'd always have thousands of others like you to fall back on. Measures can be taken to prevent cycles of seemingly endless isolation. Though with forever it WILL come up eventually, but so to will escape from isolation.
I personally believe in eternal progression. I can't contemplate an end. There's no room for endings in my heart. Well. There can be ends, but no dead ends. Relationships may fall apart, buildings can crumble. But there cant be a limit on how far one can grow and achievements that can be made and there is always something else to do. An eternity of life is only as dead as you make it out to be. Same with normal life. So long as you keep living you can always be subject to change, good or bad. To quit that would only be to leave it on a sour note when good might have been around the corner. And not to pursue longevity would be similarly defeatist. To hold back innovation of long life because "Life could suck" isn't a far cry from suicide, except you'd also take others with you.
An interesting theory, truly. But again, since you and I lack the wisdom and perspective to put it to the test, we can discuss it for days and never make any progress. It's intriguing to ponder, nonetheless.
Something tells me that you would really enjoy reading Issac Asimov's short story "The Last Question."
Exactly what I was considering when I mentioned being religious. Which I'm not sure why I mentioned it in the first place. Because I'm aware of the relationship religion has with contraceptives in the media I guess. Religion is, at least by tumblr logic, synonymous with things such as bigotry and even stupidity. That someone religious must be intolerable and cannot comprehend science. Science is certainly not exclusive of religion. Unless you're some sort of purist going by old roman standards that are self-serving and intended to smother potential threats to it's hierarchy, or certain extremist groups. Luckily my religion actually practices things such as love over hate, service over gain, and has a good connection with science and choice. I wonder if I'd be at all the same person of I was raised in a different religion. I might be dead by now, by my own hand even.
I think that the media's summary judgement of religion and conservatism in general is one of the more glaring examples of hypocrisy in our microwave, lightspeed communication, instant-gratification society. We don't have time to think or ponder, or consider all facets of a situation, so we want it compressed down to an easy-to-understand one-line blurb. When "news" can be reported by anyone with an internet connection at the push of a button, the old, slow channels one once had to go through no longer have the chance to weed out more passionate (and less informed) viewpoints. Understand that I'm talking about
all sides of a debate, not just one. It's human nature to demonize those we don't agree with to the point of reducing them to something less than human. I don't argue that there are people out there who
are backwards, ignorant, and intolerant, but the dividing line isn't quite as clear cut as many would like to believe.
In the United States, Christianity is the most popular target as a bigoted and backwards practice. In reality, someone who actually has studied the religion more than just listening to feel-good and watered-down "Christian Rock" and taking select passages from its scriptures out of context would understand that Christianity at its core espouses the same virtues: love, brotherhood, humility, sacrifice, and service. (Why did I just have an Ultima IV flashback right there?
) Christianity is not intended to give its followers a carte blanche to act as if they are holier than the rest of the population, although unfortunately there exist groups that do act that way, and they have it all wrong. And as I said earlier, the very idea that religion and scientific progress cannot coexist is entirely ludicrous to me.
Anyway, I think we've veered off the topic of this thread. LOL
