Unabridged audio books at 3x speed -- ramp the speed up slowly, if you need to -- and you can rip through books quite quickly. But, more reading could be good. (I know I should probably no more actual reading, too.)
bss03
joined 2 years ago
I don't really buy that non-epansionist requires stable-population; there's a lot of optimization potential and each one we achieve means that we can support a larger population on the same energy input. There are physical limits, sure, but it doesn't strike me that The Culture is up against them (and we are many, many orders of magnitude away; we hardly use most of the solar energy that enters the atmosphere, which is a tiny fraction of the solar output, which is a tiny fraction of what a controlled (rather than "gravitationally-organized") fusion reactor can produce on the same fuel).
I also don't buy that stable-population means involuntary death. Even once it stops being a majority position, I think you are going to have some people that opt-in to death for a variety of reasons which allows for a non-zero birth rate.
In all cases, involuntary death seems only motivated by resource limitations, so involuntary restrictions on resource usage would be preferable to involuntary death. (Those involuntary restrictions might turn into voluntary deaths, but certainly not always and likely exceedingly rarely at first.)
I don't think it would happen is "just" 400 years, but I can imagine deciding to opt-in to death "just" to allow a different, new consciousness to experience things, and that may very well be what's happening in The Culture.
Depends on the jurisdiction, but in most of the U.S. "speedy" (~90 days) is actually the default, and you have to waive your right to one if you'd like more time.
I think my reply was still a de-escalation from the attitude in the post to which I was replying. But, noted that I could be better.
It’s just that, in my sci-fi reading experience, the attitudes towards radical life extension always seem to be very conservative
Despite all our posturing as a society about choosing life, etc, we are just a species of death-loving mortalists.
I think this reflects our current culture. A lot of people seem to really think that death is what gives life meaning, and that bitter experiences are good because they make sweet experiences better. (They really need to understand The fable of the dragon-tyrant)
On top of that, even for people that don't see death as a "positive", many tend to think of life extension as making aging simply last longer, that you'd continue to get more frail and dotty (or whatever) for another decade or two.
There is fiction that celebrates radical life extension, but it is at least as rare as people that want radical life extension. And, even then, many of those people (myself included) as captured by the idea of uploading or otherwise separating the consciousness from the body, which doesn't seem to be what you want. https://www.fullmoon.nu/Resurrection/PrimarySpecies.html
I believe most defendants choose to waive their right to a speedy trial in order to have more time to prepare. It's so common that many judges schedule themselves under that assumption and some will even be biased against persons that do not waive that right.
[Judge] Murphy was angry with [attorney] Weinstock because the public defender wouldn’t waive a client’s right to a speedy trial, the complaint says.
I think with all the options for a non-physical existence, it's seen as quaint that one would choose to permanently extend their physical existence. But, I'm not an expert; I've only done the audiobooks for a few of the Culture series.
I don't know enough of the "rules" around consciousness transfer in the Culture universe, if there are any. I can imagine a future were we find out that consciousness is somehow non-copiable and non-mobile, and if that is the case, then I think a lot of people are going to be interested in putting off death forever, one day at a time (maybe tomorrow... but not today). If you can copy consciousness (which is what "backup services" implies to me), things get weird quickly; intentionally or accidentally there could be multiple living individuals that all share my whole history up to some copy point, e.g. Restoring my backup to a separate vessel in Utopia doesn't stop torture or other suffering that might continue for my current vessel.
I think you are probably right.
I think "eccenticity" has a connotation of negative judgment. So, yeah, I think "frowned upon" is an accurate summary of the attitude toward the rare biological citizen that chooses physical immortality.
But, no one is expected to just let "natural" biology cripple and kill them in a mere 80 years. They get to choose when they die, and most choose to end their physical existence sometime after 400 years, tho that's not always the end: they "simply" stop having a fixed physical vessel.
Even an arrest is temporary if we haven't thrown out due process. Habeas Corpus means a judge has to look at things, and decide to extend the detention until trial. Also, the trial has to be "speedy".
It's probably not good that there is a mechanism for legally detaining someone for months without them being an imminent threat to themselves or others. But, that's been status quo as long as I've been drawing breath, so I'm used to it.
I am unconvinced of "meat" being a uniquely-suitable substrate for anything remotely like consciousness. I think the crazy amount of silly things that turn out to be Turning-complete is sufficient evidence that meat is unlikely to be unique.
Tho, certainly, I'm not ready to be the first volunteer to be digitized or whatever.