I appreciate the hopefulness for tomorrow and would agree it does lie in great part to technology. And I'm not embarrassed to admit I'd prefer to have the technology first if at all possible.
This issue changes the dynamics of life. Something man didn't give regardless of our belief system. That just seems rather important to me.
When we reach this point.....(begin quote) "will allow us to transcend our frail bodies with all their limitations. Illness, as we know will be eradicated." (snip) "We will be able to live as long as we choose." (end).....then we will no longer be human IMHO.
I admit his understanding of exponential growth and how this would and has played out does sound logical.
And again.....(begin quote) "biology will never be able to match what we will be able to engineer once we fully understand life's principles of operation." (end).....at risk of contradicting myself I find that terribly arrogant. As if we could fully understand life's principles of operation. Good lands, we humans can't even agree on the standard. I said "at risk of contradicting myself" because I still feel we can master this humanity more than we have now. Replacement of the faulty hardware doesn't fix a human soul or repair a broken heart.
I still agree with advancement and would welcome something that could make a faulty heart beat longer. Is that hypocritical? Perhaps, or its just recognizing there should be limits to mankind.
You make some great points.
"This issue changes the dynamics of life. Something man didn't give regardless of our belief system. That just seems rather important to me.
It certainly does but so have all other technological advances of the past. Knowlege of hygiene, antibiotics, vaccines, telephones, electricity have all had transformative effects on human existence. They just weren't AS transformative as what Kurzweil suggests nor were they happening at the pace advances are today thus weren't as frightening to some.
"And again.....(begin quote) "biology will never be able to match what we will be able to engineer once we fully understand life's principles of operation." (end).....at risk of contradicting myself I find that terribly arrogant."
I have to disagree that this is arrogance. What Kurzweil suggests, that he goes into in great detail in his new book, is a technological enhancement of the human condition, not a replacement. Gosh, we've been doing that for a couple of centuries now. Antibiotics were not naturally occuring, nor were vaccines or more recently artificial hearts or insulin pumps but they WERE ALL products conceived of by the human brain as will all that Kurzweil predicts.
"Perhaps, or its just recognizing there should be limits to mankind."
Ah, but who sets the limits? God gave us the brains we have. All of what Kurzweil predicts will be the product of human thought and human ingenuity; not some invasion of alien technology. Sure there are dangers as there are with most big tech advances. But I've concluded two things (1)it serves no purpose to be a Luddite on these issues because most of what Kurzweil envisions will occur in some fashion in some finite time span. The profit, health and life-extention pressures to do so are far too powerful to be denied. and (2) because they WILL happen we all need to be thinking and talking about(ALOT)how best to utilize the miraculous things(while minimizing the risks)that we're going to see over the next 15-20 years.
Thanks for the discussion.