[extropy-chat] Extropian Scorecard

[Damien Broderick]

At 10:12 AM 11/6/2004 -0800, Mike wrote:

>The one thing I'm looking forward to about practical immortality is
>that its primary impact will be to bankrupt the social security system
>beyond the ability of any government to fix it in any semblance of its
>current form.

As usual, I must be missing something here. If `social security' is 
shorthand for collective funding of pensions for the ill, the incapacitated 
and those made feeble by old-age, plus collective funding of some or all 
medical expenses, then `practical immortality' largely does away with the 
need for such a system. It could increase the need for spending on 
continuing education, say, assuming any jobs remain for humans, and that 
any humans remain in the first place. But I can't see why keeping everyone 
healthy and youthful would `bankrupt the social security system'. On the 
contrary, I think this is one of the great benefits of any negligible 
senescence treatment, and a major motive for governments to invest heavily 
in its development *before* the shit hits the fan.

Damien Broderick