"a modern human because he can adapt to anything himself, and do so a billion times faster and more efficiently. People are going to the space because they’ve invented rockets and space suits"

so, is this what you believe here on HN? genuinely curious.

We are diverse.

Myself? This blog entry reads kinda like the Wiccan self-help books I was into in a big way as a teenager and no longer care for.

I hope to live long enough to benefit from SENS. I’m planning as if I don’t, because I have no control over which reality I will face and doing what I’m doing has the best expected utility given that uncertainty.

Then there’s the limits of any plausible form of immortality: While the idea of being part of a starlifting project to extend the lifespan of Sol by a factor of a thousand (and of being able to enjoy the benefits of that project ten trillion years from now) appeals greatly, curing ageing and all disease — leaving only injuries both accidental and malicious as causes of death — still leaves humans with a half-life of something like 800 to 1200 years. Give us mind-backups (which also appeal to me, but less so when I consider the likelihood of misuse) and you still have to consider the radical change in what it means to be over such timescales.

I don’t know what the future will bring, and I will plan for all too short a season, even though I will embrace life extension and do what I can to stay around for as long as I can.

If you look carefully enough at the implications of our situation through the lens of the 2nd law of thermodynamics, the Fermi paradox becomes a lot less paradoxical.

Edit: Apparently I have violated a HN taboo in even daring to mention that bothersome little law.

Understanding it and its implications and applying that knowledge to our IRL situation on earth might not be fun, however IS fundamental to making plausible statements about perpetual motion and related topics (i.e."von Neumann probes.")

Now, all that remains to be seen, this being HN, is: Will this comment be downvoted into oblivion without a good reason being proferred?

Riiiight... "IF" So you mean, like IF there wasn't a gargantuan 'security' apparatus in place just waiting to nip anything like that that was even remotely a _serious_ threat in the bud? (yawn..your ridiculous) hypotheticals don't work.