[ExI] Transhumanism and Politics

[Stathis Papaioannou]

On 23/01/2008, Damien Broderick <thespike at satx.rr.com> wrote:
> At 07:16 AM 1/22/2008 -0800, Spike wrote:
>
> >Life extention technology must be simply a market commodity, otherwise they
> >will never happen.  Reason: there is no one to pay for it.
>
> What a strange claim! There is no other threat menacing absolutely
> *everyone* as brutally and terrifyingly as aging and death. If the
> lunar and space probes programs and weather forecasting could be paid
> for from the common purse, I don't see why life extension ought not
> in principle be funded the same way (with philanthropic funds and
> propaganda, perhaps, used to kick start it).

Conventional medicine seeks to treat and prevent the problems
associated with aging. It's difficult to see how this could be
conceptualised as something different from preventing aging. It would
be like saying, we want to treat and prevent the problems associated
with pneumonia, but we don't actually want to prevent pneumonia
itself, as that would be wrong.




-- 
Stathis Papaioannou