I have no doubt that a day will come when physical death becomes a personal choice. In that time, people will routinely have worn out parts and even whole systems replaced, as they break or wear out.
Eventually, even the rate of aging will be slowed to a crawl, or even stopped altogether, through genetic engineering and manipulation.
Imagine indefinitely freezing the body’s aging process at age 25 to 30. Think of how wise you’d be after two or three hundred years, with every bodily function running at peak performance levels.
Imagine everyone around you living just as long, with the same health, vigor, and mental capabilities as you. I can’t help but think our world would be such a better place for us all.
I have no doubt that a day will come when physical death becomes a personal choice. In that time, people will routinely have worn out parts and even whole systems replaced, as they break or wear out.
my girlfriend, back in the late 80's, believed she'd be able to fly to the moon. :)
One of the best lines in the movie “Cocoon” was by Wilfrod Brimley who said, “Grandparents should never outlive their children”.
I’m fine with that. Don’t want to see my beautiful children and grandchildren go before me. My son and son-in-law both survived combat in Iraq (and Kosovo). They’ve earned a long, healthy and prosperous life.
Cancer killed my father, a WW2 veteran despite the wonderful attempts of a world renown surgeon to save him, and medical postponed my mother’s death to leukemia by over a greatful year (so she could enjoy her grandchildren).
I hope and pray that cures are found very soon for those who have cancer now or will in the future. They deserve to enjoy a healthy future.
Imagine there being treatments that will keep you alert and vigorous up to a hundred or more.
Now imagine that the cost of such treatment is such that only the very rich could afford it, that it would be completely unfeasible to deliver it to everyone even with government subsidies.
What would be the social reaction?
Well the world is turning feral and heading to anarchy, so a tiny sliver in the future will have longone lives while the others die from the chaos.