[extropy-chat] Transhumanism and non-gender roles

[Adrian Tymes]

--- Eugen Leitl <eugen at leitl.org> wrote:
> On Tue, Dec 02, 2003 at 03:13:30PM -0500, MB wrote:
> > What do you mean by "too much control is a bad
> thing"? Would
> > you *force* people to continue to exist in their
> misery and
> > pain and suffering because ... what?
> 
> This is from another context entirely! This is
> directed to
> the control freaks amongst us. It can be liberating
> to realize
> that this is only an illusion of control, in a world
> that is
> entirely uncontrollable. 

Sorry, but MB is correct.  I specified "control over
oneself" - as in, the opportunity to not grow old and
deterioriate, if desired.  That is not illusiory in
the same sense as "control" over other sentient
beings.

You are correct in what you did say: people who
currently have withered bodies, or who believe that
the only path to old age is to wither, might not want
to live forever given what they think it must mean.
But that is not what we are discussing.  We are
discussing the ability to live forever in relatively
good health.  (Frankly, it might be technically more
difficult to achieve immortality in a withered shell
than in a perpetually healthy shell, even if there
was not the desirability issue.  Were I to wither at
current rates, yet survive to 100, I might seriously
contemplate whether cryonic suspension might give me a
better chance of seeing the far future than continued
life.)