[ExI] Medical Costs and the end of humanity

[hkhenson]

At 10:41 PM 2/19/2008, Bryan wrote:
>On Tuesday 19 February 2008, Tom Tobin wrote:
> > I *am* ambivalent about libertarianism vs. the liberal-welfare-state
> > when it comes to transhumanism, I'll admit; the welfare state is
> > better for *unaugmented* humans, but becomes stifling for
> > transhumans/posthumans.  I don't know how to resolve this; I'd be
> > better off here-and-now under a solid welfare state, but I'd curse
> > myself the moment the serious cog upgrades came along ... but one
> > might not *get there* without the welfare state.  ::sigh::
>
>Seems welfare becomes obsolete when we have self-replicating drugs, This
>at least gets people back up to some sort of 'baseline standard' and
>they can work from there, if they want. Something like that.

I think you should be aware that advancing technology following a 
strict libertarian model could wipe out the entire human race and 
they would fail to even notice.  Here is my fictional take on the end 
of humanity.

http://www.terasemjournals.org/GN0202/henson.html

It's amusing that almost nobody sees this story as a tragedy or at 
least of having a most ambiguous ending.

Keith

PS.  In order to have a story line and characters to identify with, 
the "powers that be" 100 years from now encourage a remnant 
population.  It's a literary cheat.  The most likely scenario is a 
total population wipe out.