[extropy-chat] Re: Immortals (was: more great reasons to be dead)

[ben]

Damien Sullivan wrote:

"I would say, more likely than a discrete elixir of life, let alone any 
way of
telling "immortals" from "mortals", or even a sense of "immortality", is
simply better and better medical care, better prevention or genetic 
cleaning,
more and better replacement of parts.  A whole suite of ways of 
enhancing the
body's ability to maintain itself in the face of entropy.  And rather than
"woot, we're immortal!" there'll just be longer and longer achieved 
lifespans.  "

There's an easy way of telling an immortal apart from everybody else. 
They need two birthday cakes to hold all the candles.

You raise a good point, but i wonder what the general reaction will be 
to the first person who passes their 120th birthday in demonstrably good 
health. Nobody has ever done that before, so it will be a unique and 
special event. They will be a special person, and the media will 
probably lap it up. Might this not start a general perception that there 
are such things as 'immortals'?

Or will this point be reached so gradually that it's not so special, and 
is completely expected? I can't believe that somebody won't make a big 
deal of it. If nothing else, it will mark a record that's been broken, 
and that's always 'newsworthy'. And the candlemakers will be celebrating.

ben