“Deathism” is something like the position that the current way in which people typically die is preferable to a hypothetical where people usually don’t die. This is associated with arguments like “death gives meaning to life” (motivates during life to do more), the hypothetical overpopulation/resource shortage problems, and the idea that without new people, there will be a shortage of new ideas or social change.
OK, now I understand. Indeed it doesn’t seem either obviously false or obviously true.
However, won’t the free market solve it automatically? If societies that embrace immortality technology will be less successful than societies that won’t embrace it, the latter will eventually own most of the resources.
If societies that embrace immortality technology will be less successful than societies that won’t embrace it, the latter will eventually own most of the resources.
“Success” is not specific enough (has misleading connotations). When measles virus kills a person, the virus is “more successful”, but that doesn’t indicate that the outcome is a good thing.
My point is that even if you accept the deathist thesis that a civilization of immortals will become stagnant (which I think is a valid concern), it doesn’t mean immortality is black swan technology. Let’s give people the choice of how long to live.
Also, even if the optimal life span is not infinite, there’s no reason to assume it’s close to the natural life span. It might be e.g. 30000 years.
What succeeds at being stable and producing more of itself most efficiently is not necessarily what we consider to be most good or contain the most moral value. The market is a very powerful optimizer, but not an inherently friendly one.
For example, contrast two countries, one an idyllic paradise with happy citizens who pay very low taxes and a country with very high taxes, unhappy workers, but a much more powerful military. If there’s a conflict between them, the country with unhappy workers+high taxes has a large advantage, and will win, despite this being not in the interests of the average worker. A possible real life example is the Comache Indians, and more development of this idea (multipolar traps) can be found on SlateStarCodex’s Mediations on Molch.
OK, now I understand. Indeed it doesn’t seem either obviously false or obviously true.
However, won’t the free market solve it automatically? If communities that embrace immortality technology will be less successful than communities that won’t embrace it, the latter will eventually take control of most resources.
“Deathism” is something like the position that the current way in which people typically die is preferable to a hypothetical where people usually don’t die. This is associated with arguments like “death gives meaning to life” (motivates during life to do more), the hypothetical overpopulation/resource shortage problems, and the idea that without new people, there will be a shortage of new ideas or social change.
OK, now I understand. Indeed it doesn’t seem either obviously false or obviously true.
However, won’t the free market solve it automatically? If societies that embrace immortality technology will be less successful than societies that won’t embrace it, the latter will eventually own most of the resources.
“Success” is not specific enough (has misleading connotations). When measles virus kills a person, the virus is “more successful”, but that doesn’t indicate that the outcome is a good thing.
My point is that even if you accept the deathist thesis that a civilization of immortals will become stagnant (which I think is a valid concern), it doesn’t mean immortality is black swan technology. Let’s give people the choice of how long to live.
Also, even if the optimal life span is not infinite, there’s no reason to assume it’s close to the natural life span. It might be e.g. 30000 years.
What succeeds at being stable and producing more of itself most efficiently is not necessarily what we consider to be most good or contain the most moral value. The market is a very powerful optimizer, but not an inherently friendly one.
For example, contrast two countries, one an idyllic paradise with happy citizens who pay very low taxes and a country with very high taxes, unhappy workers, but a much more powerful military. If there’s a conflict between them, the country with unhappy workers+high taxes has a large advantage, and will win, despite this being not in the interests of the average worker. A possible real life example is the Comache Indians, and more development of this idea (multipolar traps) can be found on SlateStarCodex’s Mediations on Molch.
OK, now I understand. Indeed it doesn’t seem either obviously false or obviously true.
However, won’t the free market solve it automatically? If communities that embrace immortality technology will be less successful than communities that won’t embrace it, the latter will eventually take control of most resources.