Obviously we want to honor both preferences, but we just don’t know how. However, it seems to me that solving suffering as qualia of pain is technologically simpler: just add some electrodes to a right brain center which will turn it off when pain is above acceptable threshold. Death is more complex problem, but the main difference is that death is irreversible.
From Personal utilitarian view, any amount of suffering could be compensated by a future eternal paradise.
suffering as qualia of pain is technologically simpler
I can’t tell if you’re serious here—it seems to negate your argument (because we haven’t actually done so or taken significant steps toward it) if this is an intentional strawman, but it’s pretty weak as a motte-and-bailey.
I didn’t say “pain”, I said “suffering”. This includes the anguish that one has degraded over time and is now a net drain on family/society. And the degradation itself, regardless of the emotional reaction. Once you’ve solved aging, then there can be a reasonable debate about the value of death. Until then, it’s simply more efficient for the old and infirm to die. Fortunately, we’re rich enough to support a lot of people well past their useful duration, and that feels good, but one wouldn’t want to increase the proportion of old to young by an order of magnitude (with today’s constraints).
Solve the underlying constraints, and the argument about death will dissolve, or will migrate to more concrete reasons for one way or the other.
Obviously we want to honor both preferences, but we just don’t know how. However, it seems to me that solving suffering as qualia of pain is technologically simpler: just add some electrodes to a right brain center which will turn it off when pain is above acceptable threshold. Death is more complex problem, but the main difference is that death is irreversible.
From Personal utilitarian view, any amount of suffering could be compensated by a future eternal paradise.
I can’t tell if you’re serious here—it seems to negate your argument (because we haven’t actually done so or taken significant steps toward it) if this is an intentional strawman, but it’s pretty weak as a motte-and-bailey.
I didn’t say “pain”, I said “suffering”. This includes the anguish that one has degraded over time and is now a net drain on family/society. And the degradation itself, regardless of the emotional reaction. Once you’ve solved aging, then there can be a reasonable debate about the value of death. Until then, it’s simply more efficient for the old and infirm to die. Fortunately, we’re rich enough to support a lot of people well past their useful duration, and that feels good, but one wouldn’t want to increase the proportion of old to young by an order of magnitude (with today’s constraints).
Solve the underlying constraints, and the argument about death will dissolve, or will migrate to more concrete reasons for one way or the other.