20 replies to this topic

[Droplet]

As many of you know, I have been working on ideas for a booklet for showcasing the reasons why real people support life extension. It all began with this thread: http://www.longecity...or-a-long-time/

I would like feedback on the following introduction:

Life has often been described as “fleeting” or “too short.” However there are many arguments stating that life’s limit is somehow desirable or a gift. Whilst many fictional accounts traditionally paint immortality and/or extending the human life span as negative, a growing number of people have voiced the positive side of longer lives but their voices are often drowned out.

This booklet is a collection of just some of the voices of people who do not wish to succumb to the currently limited human lifespan. This booklet is not aimed at one reason in particular regarding the extension of the human lifespan but is a collection of the thoughts and ideas of contributors as to why they wish to go against the deadlines currently imposed on us by nature.

This booklet comprises just some arguments for the conquest of involuntary death from aging and is by no means the full extent of arguments for life extension.

For more information on this topic and things mentioned in this publication, please visit www.longecity.org

Also, I would be grateful for any people to come forward who maybe have experience in publishing and/or are able to help design/put a booklet together for the cause.

I apologise for being so slow to do this but life got in the way. However, if I say I'm going to do something I try my best to ensure that it is done.

[Mind]

Not too slow Droplet, IMO. It took a few months and now it is time to put it together/publish. I am sure we will find someone to help out. I used blurb to publish one of my last books, it might be an option for us. Or we could go through Libros again (print on demand)

[Droplet]

Caliban did mention ages ago about if I can collect the content, Longecity would see about publishing it. Of course we wouldn't be including the entries from people against the idea of life extension even though it was still interesting to hear their views. Do you think that the intro sounds okay enough?

Edited by Droplet, 07 January 2013 - 09:50 PM.

[Shannon Vyff]

The intro sounds great to me, succinct and to the point.

[niner]

I would add a bit about how in the last twenty years or so, science has figured out that lifespan is malleable, rather than being cast in stone like we once thought. We now see what needs to be done in order to lengthen human lifespans, we just need to do the R&D to solve the problems.

If you only talk about why living longer would be a good thing, the average person would look at it for a minute and think something like "being able to fly like a bird would be a good thing too..." and then be on their way. Most people think that living longer is impossible, which naturally leads them to think that a fixed lifespan must be a good thing, which is a psychological defense against the bleak truth. If they realized that living substantially longer was actually a possible option, that would open their minds.

[Droplet]

Thanks for pointing that valuable thing out, Niner. I will add that in and repost in a day or so.

[Droplet]

Here's the re-edit. Feedback appreciated.

Our life spans are often thought of as immutable and predetermined by a combination of factors. However over the past twenty years, science has made the discovery that not only is this an outdated fallacy but also that our lifespans are actually malleable, leaving open the possibility of dramatically increasing the number of years that nature has already given us. A handful of organisations are already working towards a future where getting old doesn't automatically mean getting sick. However, they just need the support and funding to make this achievable dream a reality.


Life has often been described as “fleeting” or “too short.” However there are many arguments stating that life’s limit is somehow desirable or a gift. Whilst many fictional accounts traditionally paint immortality and/or extending the human life span as negative, a growing number of people have voiced the positive side of longer lives but their voices are often drowned out.

This booklet is a collection of just some of the voices of people who do not wish to succumb to the currently limited human lifespan. This booklet is not aimed at one reason in particular regarding the extension of the human lifespan but is a collection of the thoughts and ideas of contributors as to why they wish to go against the deadlines currently imposed on us by nature.

This booklet comprises just some arguments for the conquest of involuntary death from aging and is by no means the full extent of arguments for life extension.

For more information on this topic and things mentioned in this publication including how to help further the goal of life extension, please visit www.longecity.org

Edited by Droplet, 08 January 2013 - 10:33 AM.

[niner]

That sounds great. I particularly like the way you succinctly stated that getting old doesn't have to mean getting sick, since so many people still think that life extension is all about spending more time in a sickly decrepit state. (The Tithonus fallacy)

[Droplet]

Thanks for your input, Niner.


I'm going to contact all participants who wrote a piece that is relevant to see if any wish to provide us with a photo to give their accounts "a human face."


Now all we need are people to perhaps provide illustrations/designs/editing to put all of the information together into a publication.

Any takers...please?

Edited by Droplet, 08 January 2013 - 01:14 PM.

[lifebuddy]

Robert Frost eloquently detailed the fleetingness of life...


"Nature's first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf's a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief.
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay."

There is no point in life extension if it just means that we get older, frailer, & sicker. People are pretty darned frail at age 90, so extending life to 150+ is just not going to cut it without a whole host of other improvements.

[niner]

There is no point in life extension if it just means that we get older, frailer, & sicker. People are pretty darned frail at age 90, so extending life to 150+ is just not going to cut it without a whole host of other improvements.

There is essentially nothing in the life extension armament that we now possess, or imagine for the future that would result in this. If anything, it's conventional medicine that focuses on fixing things when they break rather than keeping them from breaking that results in this state of extended decrepitude. Life extension today is about compressing the period of morbidity as well as pushing it into the future. The ultimate goal would be no morbidity at all; being youthful right up until the time that you get run over by a bus at the age of 592. There's actually a name for this concern about life extension resulting in more suffering- It's called the Tithonus error:

According to the Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite, when Eos asked Zeus to make Tithonus immortal,[5] she forgot to ask for eternal youth (218-38). Tithonus indeed lived forever

"but when loathsome old age pressed full upon him, and he could not move nor lift his limbs, this seemed to her in her heart the best counsel: she laid him in a room and put to the shining doors. There he babbles endlessly, and no more has strength at all, such as once he had in his supple limbs." (Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite)

We're kind of stuck with the name "life extension", although some have pushed for "health extension" as an alternative.

[Droplet]

The Tithonus error is one of the big things that come up on the few occasions that I do mention life extension outside these forums along with overpopulation.

[gray.bot]

I like the intro. My idea for thought is that you could write a little line in that refers to people/cultures like the Okinawans who already live to 100 years with 90 year olds extremely functional climbing trees and working as normal.

A tactic that could work to soften the approach and get more people to continue reading could be: expanding their mind initially with 'look people already live to 100 very capable and able and they have great lives' and then moving to the 'new science in the last 20 years means we could do this to 120 or 150' and then the 'these are a collection of thoughts of people who realise this is happening and believe in reasons for it' etc

Hope thats half-helpful.

I really like the work you are doing Droplet, you are very inspiring.

[Droplet]

Thanks for that, Gray.bot. I think that you make a very good point. Here's the revised version. People please feedback on it.
 

It is not unknown that some cultures such as the Okinawans already live until 100 with many 90-year-olds in this culture being in extremely healthy but what if we could continue this excellent health in advanced age past 100, possibly into 200 and beyond?


Our life spans are often thought of as immutable and predetermined by a combination of factors. However over the past twenty years, science has made the discovery that not only is this an outdated fallacy but also that our lifespans are actually malleable, leaving open the possibility of dramatically increasing the number of years that nature has already given us. A handful of organisations are already working towards a future where getting old doesn't automatically mean getting sick. However, they just need the support and funding to make this achievable dream a reality.


Life has often been described as “fleeting” or “too short.” However there are many arguments stating that life’s limit is somehow desirable or a gift. Whilst many fictional accounts traditionally paint immortality and/or extending the human life span as negative, a growing number of people have voiced the positive side of longer lives but their voices are often drowned out.

This booklet is a collection of just some of the voices of people who do not wish to succumb to the currently limited human lifespan. This booklet is not aimed at one reason in particular regarding the extension of the human lifespan but is a collection of the thoughts and ideas of contributors as to why they wish to go against the deadlines currently imposed on us by nature.

This booklet comprises just some arguments for the conquest of involuntary death from aging and is by no means the full extent of arguments for life extension.

For more information on this topic and things mentioned in this publication including how to help further the goal of life extension, please visit www.longecity.org

Edited by cryonicsculture, 30 July 2014 - 11:30 PM.

[gray.bot]

Awesome

[Droplet]

Awesome

Thanks. Any other input for this? If someone thinks it's a heap of doo-doo, I would much rather you told me than sat quiet.

Edited by cryonicsculture, 30 July 2014 - 11:30 PM.

[Droplet]

I think that we need a final page and this is what I propose, again if it is crap, please speak up!

Introduction and conecpt by a contributing member of Longecity. Thank you very much to all Longecity members who have contributed to this project - this could never have came into being without you!

For further information, please visit www.longecity.org

<Insert legal/publishing crap here>

[Nik]

Hello everybody,

Just joined, I was reading this post and this leaflet idea is something I have been thinging for a while on my own. If you have a definitive version I will be happy to have a few thousand copies printed and distributed in my area (I am based in Bratislava, Slovakia)... that should give some visibility to the cause.

[Droplet]

Hello everybody,

Just joined, I was reading this post and this leaflet idea is something I have been thinging for a while on my own. If you have a definitive version I will be happy to have a few thousand copies printed and distributed in my area (I am based in Bratislava, Slovakia)... that should give some visibility to the cause.

Thank you so much for that, Nik. When it is finally done, I'll keep you in mind. We could use distributors when it's out there.

[amarjeet singh]

its a good idea i am from india please send me copy i will distribute it hear. in india people think life extention is like going againt god and it is treated as taboo. i think your booklet will make people to think about it.

[Droplet]

its a good idea i am from india please send me copy i will distribute it hear. in india people think life extention is like going againt god and it is treated as taboo. i think your booklet will make people to think about it.

Thank you for putting yourself forward as a distribution volunteer, Amarjeet Singh. When this project is comlpeted, I'll pass your name onto whoever will be sending them out from Longecity.