[extropy-chat] ENOUGH again

[Mark Walker]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Damien Broderick"
>
> > What do you think McKibben means by 'living must be enough for us, not
> > living forever'? ... Does the 'must' here suggest some
> > public policy recommendation, e.g., making it illegal to pursue
> immortality?
>
> Yes. Because it's the slippery slope to the final erosion of meaning from
> our (formerly) mortal lives. That meaning derives from our transience and
> continuity with the rest of the  natural world. This doesn't mean, though,
> that we have to give up reading or wearing clothes, even though sparrows
and
> worms and bacteria can't do that. How come? Well, if you don't see (or
> *feel*) why, it obviously shows how spiritually bankrupt you must already
> be... Sigh.
>

Well, that's interesting.  Even Kass doesn't go this far with immortality,
unlike human cloning. That is, Kass wants to ban human cloning but he
doesn't (in what I've read ) say that radical life extension, agelessness or
emortality ought to be made illegal. Really, it seems a shame to stop here.
Why not make it illegal to live a mortal life with our meaning?  E.g., it
could be made a capital offence to live a mortal life without meaning.

Mark

Mark Walker, PhD
Research Associate, Philosophy, Trinity College
University of Toronto
Room 214  Gerald Larkin Building
15 Devonshire Place
Toronto
M5S 1H8
www.permanentend.org