Ever feel very sad or afraid for the possibility of losing your loved ones, like your mother or father, grandparents?
Those who have less chance, those who might have told you they don't want it or don't care and won't even try anything, not even cryonics?
I feel the way you do Luna, especially about my mom ( me and my father have never been very close for strong reasons ), but on the other hand she seems to be one of those people in the last category - who don't really care and won't try anything. I once talked to her about transhumanism, starting from the little uncontroversial things like virtual reality, cool talking robots etc, but when I got to the longevity / immortality part, making it clear from the start that it would not mean living in decrepitude for centuries, and that it would be a possibility, not a must, she asked at one moment "But why would you want it, Chris ?". And I just felt speechless for a second, beacause there was something incomprehensible to me in my own mother asking me, why do I want to be alive and not dead, it felt like we were talking to each other from cosmically different perspectives.
Now I think of it, our goal here, like an important journey that one embarks on, and wants his/her close ones to go as well, but if they choose not to for whatever reason, you still should get on that ship. I know my mom has had a full, happy life despite struggling with a failed marriage, and if she feels that it's the way it should be - to just fade into the darkness one day ( she is an agnostic leaning towards atheism ), that this is the rightful destiny of a human being then, as much as it hurts me, I cannot make her not feel this way. Maybe it's just rationalizing on her side, perhaps she doesn't believe that all of this has a chance, the technology saving us from death, but I also accept the possibility that she has a totally different mindset to mine on this, and it's something that I just can't fight if I have respect for her, even if it saddens me.
Edited by chris w, 13 May 2010 - 04:32 PM.