[ExI] ?Risks: Global Catastrophic, Extinction, Existential and ...

[Mike Dougherty]

2012/3/8  <natasha at natasha.cc>:
> If we consider radical human life extension,  what type of risk might there
> be?  (Extinction risk is obvious, but I'm wondering if extinction risk is
> more relevant to a species rather than a person.)  So, I started thinking
> about the elements of a person that keep him/her alive: foresight, insight,
> intelligence, creativity, willingness to change, etc. I also thought about
> what might keep a person from not continuing to exist: depression/sadness.

Recalcitrant Obsolescence.  By resisting change perceived as a "fad"
one might be inclined to maintain their identity even as it grows
farther out of compliance with the current mainstream.  I'd imagine
that the main stream would grow much wider to accommodate a reasonable
amount of this; there will inevitably be those who defend their right
to become living fossils.  Maybe this isn't personal existential risk
in the sense of death making that identity pattern unavailable.
However, those who continue to "grow" with the exponential increases
in technology would perceive even steady linear growth as merely
logarithmic until no growth is perceptible.

Instead of reliving one's youth through music of 1960's, 70's, 80's it
would be "Hits from three centuries near the turn of the millennium"
:)  So many comical exaggerations of 100 year lifespan simply
stretched out to 1000 or more...