[extropy-chat] A new life/health extension meme...

[Chris Phoenix]

I've found that when I talk about life extension, or even health 
extension, people start reacting weirdly; they worry about Alzheimers, 
or the meaning of life, or social justice, or boredom...

I think I've come up with a way to introduce the topic without 
triggering all that.

"If they developed a pill that would make you five years younger for 
each pill you took, how many of them would you take?"

"Five years" short-circuits the bogus philosophy.
"Younger" short-circuits the medical worries.
"A pill" makes it sound simple and cheap, mitigating worries about 
social justice.
"They developed" may bypass skepticism by invoking R&D.
"How many" makes it clear that the user has a practical, straightforward 
choice that will have a large but comprehensible effect on his life, and 
further distances the question from practical worries.

I'd appreciate it if people would try this out on relative strangers 
(not people who've already built up opinions on life extension) and 
report their reactions.

Chris

-- 
Chris Phoenix                                  cphoenix at CRNano.org
Director of Research
Center for Responsible Nanotechnology          http://CRNano.org