It's another sign of the selfish immaturity ingrained into our culture.
Selfish immaturity? It seems that you yourself is a reflection of culture.
One of our very first epic poems, the Epic of Gilgamesh basically railed against immortality and accepting one's fate.
If someone lives forever, they don't evolve physically. This is basic. To the degree we evolve culturally, most of our culture comes to us in our eponymous "formative years." Leaving those behind tends to result in comparatively little change in culture over the remaining course of our lives.
> Selfish immaturity? It seems that you yourself is a reflection of culture.
I rest my case.
> One of our very first epic poems, the Epic of Gilgamesh basically railed against immortality and accepting one's fate.
This was not a call to try and live forever, this is a call to live boldly, take risks and not to fear death. Striving for immortality is the absolute opposite, the coward's response to the challenge made in the poem.
you skipped some lessons in biology class; you're not doing any evolving over the course of _your_ life. regardless of how long or short it is.
If a population lives forever, do you really think they'll continue having kids the entire time? Of course not.
That is not a law of physics or biology. People get heart implants, or even exercise and become stronger.
I rest my case.
Rest your case how? You didn't demonstrate that it is selfish and immature to desire to live, perhaps indefinitely.
This was not a call to try and live forever, this is a call to live boldly, take risks and not to fear death. Striving for immortality is the absolute opposite, the coward's response to the challenge made in the poem.
I assure you that I do not make conscious decisions about whether I live a thousand years if I undertake a given activity. I am also pretty sure that I routinely undertaken relatively dangerous activities that would kill me.
I doubt most people who becomes immortal will become the sort of conscious decision makers deciding not to take risk lest they jeopardize their thousand years+ lifespan. That doesn't seem to jives with human nature.
There's a heluva lot I wish I could tell my 20 year old self. Sometimes I counsel my friends in their 20s, but they don't believe me, as I didn't believe this stuff in my 20s.
Like?
Likewise it is impossible to communicate what 20 years of adult experiences feels like to someone who is barely an adult; not all years are the same. And then when they get to 40, likewise, communicating another 40 years of life experience to them doesn't work either. Growing up and aging can only be done first hand.
Compound this with the fact that some old people are just dumb and angry. So young people can and should just shrug off some of what old nutters say.