[ExI] Should the US fund life-extension research?

[Adrian Tymes]

On Tue, Jun 26, 2012 at 12:39 AM, BillK <pharos at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Tue, Jun 26, 2012 at 8:18 AM, Adrian Tymes  wrote:
>> It means you have Done Something, so you might no longer think
>> you should also write a letter.
>>
>> For the vast majority of people, this is a problem.  Perhaps not
>> you or I, but the issue here is getting a bunch of people to do the
>> right thing, so one must acknowledge and design around the habits
>> of the majority.
>
> You have a generational clash here.
>
> Old politicians notice receiving a hand-written letter.
>
> Anybody under 20 has probably never written a letter in their life.
> They hardly ever use email either. It takes too much time to structure
> an email properly.
> Texting, IM, Facebook provide the instant gratification they require.

It is not as extreme as you think.  The majority of Americans between
17 and 20 have written at least one actual postal letter.  Granted, they
may have printed it and signed it rather than hand written it, but it did
go on paper and it did go through the traditional postal system.

How do I know?  College applications.  Yes, some colleges allow
all-electronic applications these days, but many are still bound to
paper-only processes, and practically all of those require a letter,
composed by the applicant, as part of the admissions process - in
part to judge their writing skills.  It is no coincidence that the most
widely used college admissions test in the US - the SAT - focuses
on English and math to the exclusion of all other subjects.

Further, most (at a rough guess, I'd estimate somewhere around 90%)
of those under 20 are under 18, and thus unable to vote anyway.
Politicians pay more attention to correspondence from those who
could actually vote against them (in the election that determines if
they retain their office, anyway, as opposed to mock elections).