14 replies to this topic

[brokenportal]

What do we say to people that say that life would get boring with indefinite life extension?

Even if you really liked to do a variety of things, those things would wear on you in no time, they say.

How do we respond to that?

 Boredom Longecity Indefinite Life Extension.jpg   87.82K   2 downloads

[Droplet]

First of all, that picture is quite cute. Secondly I'd ask them how many times they said "I got so much to do and so little time" and ask them why the heck they don't want to add time on. I mean, logically if you don't have enough of what you need you want more of it, right? So why not time? Also, if you ever recall a time when they start saying about if they were only younger they'd have done x, y and z I'd be sure to remind them of it if we were discussing life extension.

[enfield]

You could say that life extension is supposed to allow you to live as long as you want, not shorter or longer than that. And If you become bored you can just  stop submitting to the life extension therapies (assuming life extension works that way).

the boredom objection seems like one of the things that comes up when people try to rationally validate their feelings of apprehension towards life extension. I'm not sure the people who bring it up are even convinced by it.

[hivemind]

People lose their drive to do things when they get older. The whole economic system is based on the exploitation of the drive that young people have. World would be more boring place and very much poorer economically without young people.

[Droplet]

hivemind, on 16 January 2012 - 12:00 AM, said:

People lose their drive to do things when they get older. The whole economic system is based on the exploitation of the drive that young people have. World would be more boring place and very much poorer economically without young people.

People are individuals and I've met some old people who have mopre drive than young people. When I was in Psychology class years ago, there was a seventy odd woman with more drive than all us young people combined. I'd question how much of this "loss of drive" is simply because people are convinced that their time is running out and think that they should give up. Then there are pushes from society "you should be this/that at x age."

[Mind]

"Boring people get bored"

"If you get bored, you can just check out, the rest of us exciting people will keep going"

[Droplet]

Mind, on 16 January 2012 - 06:46 PM, said:

"Boring people get bored"

"If you get bored, you can just check out, the rest of us exciting people will keep going"

I don't know who originally said it but there is a wonderful quote that goes something like "no truly educated person can ever be bored." I kind of agree with it. Most people go through periods of boredom and tedium but they're never constant, just takes a little bit of imagination to find something new to do.

[brokenportal]

That reminds me of the notion that ignorance is bliss and that the more you know the more you know you don't know and can sometimes come to regret knowing. That however seems to tie in well with the notion that "no truly educated person can ever be bored" because though it might pain one to have to contemplate certain scenarios that they become knowledgeable about, that in itself seems to be a part of the recipe for removing boredom. The giant kettle of challenges that life is, is the antithesis of boring. The people that might get bored it seems haven't looked in the kettle yet. Some people are so busy filling out and living by societies various cultural and economic and tradition and trend forms that they actually, it seems, never look around.

It reminds me of this. Im glad I remembered this video because I think it might make this point brilliantly:

[Droplet]

I saw the gorilla first time.   I then lost count of the passes. You are right about what you are saying though. On ignorance being bliss, one of my relatives often wishes they were less knowledgable about the world because if you were completely stupid and oblivious, you can find satisfaction and wonder in the simplest things. I disagree. I'm not completely stupid even if I'm not a genius or in a really smart job but I CAN take joy in simple things. I delight in the sparkle of frost, the sound of leaves under my boots and the chaos of a city.

Honestly though, take a look at the next time you're bored. Is it REALLY severe enough to want to permanently delete yourself from existence? If no, then why would it be the same a hundred years down the line when there may in fact be more possibilities in life?

Edited by Droplet, 17 January 2012 - 06:57 AM.

[brokenportal]

Droplet, on 17 January 2012 - 06:57 AM, said:

On ignorance being bliss,

Ya if ignorance is a bliss but it causes a boredom to the point where you can't figure out how to derive join from the seemingly infinite (infinite is a lot) number of things to know and experience, then that's not bliss. The combinations work out to just, astronomical possibilities. Why just the shape of snow flakes or the sound of leaves like your saying, even just those alone take on different lives of their own to experience depending on the situation you're in.

A few out of a million examples, for example, are that one time there was no snow all November or December and then on Christmas day I stepped out on to the families back porch and I saw  the very first snowflake that I saw that year, a giant snowflake slowly wafting down in front of my face, I could see its structure pretty clearly in the bright days light. I thought that was awesome. One time I took a corner too sharply on a snowmobile on snow with a hard layer on the top, and the ski bit in and sent me skidding through the  hard icy snow, my extended hand was like a scissors cutting through it, the hard chunks of snow hitting my face. The snow took on a different life there. There is a snow flake on the cryonics fundraiser article. With the fundraiser context in the periphery of my mind, I was contemplating the symmetry of that snowflake, wondering how the nature of chemistry is such that frozen hydrogen and oxygen clumps routinely and instantaneously pop out like pop corn kernels into those intricate patterns every time at a certain temperature. It made me have another direct view of the question of what in the hell is the reason this universe is here doing things like this. Those are just a few worlds in a snow flake. Trying to become bored of life would be like trying to count all of the kernels of sand on the beaches of the Atlantic.

[platypus]

brokenportal, on 15 January 2012 - 07:09 PM, said:

What do we say to people that say that life would get boring with indefinite life extension?

You really think that living forever and trying to conquer the galaxy is "boring"???

[brokenportal]

platypus, on 06 February 2012 - 12:22 PM, said:

brokenportal, on 15 January 2012 - 07:09 PM, said:

What do we say to people that say that life would get boring with indefinite life extension?

You really think that living forever and trying to conquer the galaxy is "boring"???

That is the basic answer. It would be nice if that alone worked, but I find that many people can't conceptualize what the galaxy might have to offer. Often times they dont even try to think of even a few examples and they say those galaxy orientated things to do would get boring. They just say things like, "well I could play basketball and listen to music out in the universe too but that isn't going to make 100 years of that get any less boring over time."

I put together an unofficial index of sorts, with the help of a lot of discussions over the years, of what I call "Existences Big Picture, Big 8, Categories and Standalone Opportunities." This lists every major category, and some things are so big that they stand as things to do on their own. Its broader than the notion of exploring the big picture, to help them wrap their brain around it a little better, but doesnt go into so much detail that it would be too hard to explain to people.

[Droplet]

brokenportal, on 05 March 2012 - 10:14 PM, said:

They just say things like, "well I could play basketball and listen to music out in the universe too but that isn't going to make 100 years of that get any less boring over time."

Do they not realise that you would also do so many other things as well as basketball and music out there in the galaxy? What about physically exploring new worlds? How the heck could you ever be bored? Reminds me of a quote I once heard "no truly educated person can ever be bored." I think there's a lot of truth in that, as if you've got the smarts to learn and discover, posibilites are infinite....and that's just on earth.

[Arcanyn]

The library at my university apparently has something on the order of 2 million books. If you were to read one book per week, that would take around about 40,000 years to read them all. That's just one library. You'll never be short of new stuff to read/learn about. Plus, even if you live forever, there's no way that you could ever read every book ever written, or watch every movie ever made - people will always be writing new books and making new films far faster than you could ever hope to read/watch them. It's similar with science; in any given field it's not possible to learn more than a tiny fraction of what's known in a normal lifespan, and new stuff is being discovered far too quickly for any one person to possibly catch up, meaning they'll never know the entirety of what's been discovered no matter how long they live.

So, even if we spend eternity stuck on Earth, there'll always be plenty of new things to do and learn.

[Droplet]

Shit...I realise I used the same quote twice in one thread. Sorry!