This TED talk by Nick Bostrom argues that death itself and human extinction are two BIG problems of our time. The third one he suggests is the inability of humans to fully enjoy life due to human limitations such as finite cognitive capacity, limited affective self-control, limited health span and limited bodily functionality. part of his talk discusses the issues around developing technologies to overcome some of these human limitations.
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/44
incidentally, he also directs the Oxford Future of Humanity Institute, which is another rousing Centre name
http://www.fhi.ox.ac.uk/
2 comments:
On the subject of death being a huge issue of our time, I think it has always been the biggest problem, but perhaps now we have more time to think about it.
I found a recent "special report on death" (from the New Scientist)to be very interesting:
site
Particularly interesting is the story on transhumanism – the plan for eternal life:
site
And this one on what it feels like to die: site
Declining faith in an afterlife is also a big contributor to the 'problem' of death.. Interesting, if more than slightly morbid discussion of likely experience and ways of dying.. I remember discussing this before and we concluded that it would be hard to beat a razor sharp guillotine for a quick and painless way to go which seems to be what they're saying here.. a nice list of things to avoid in the new year anyways!!
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