Comment by unsupp0rted
3 hours ago
Only 79… far from a complete human experience. It’s incredibly sad how little time we get here, especially the best of us.
3 hours ago
Only 79… far from a complete human experience. It’s incredibly sad how little time we get here, especially the best of us.
This is just a tragic way to view the world, on so may levels: 79 is a great run for anybody. And more importantly, Craig Venter did more in 79 years than most people could do in two or three lifetimes. Lastly, of course, life is literally the longest thing you will ever experience, regardless of how long it lasts.
I learned a lot about Craig Venter after reading My Life Decoded in college. Truly an amazing person.
>79 is a great run for anybody
Average life expectancy for males in the US is 76.5 years. During the pandemic it dipped below 74. So he was definitely already on the lucky side of the distribution. He also famously once said: "If you want immortality, do something meaningful with your life."
> Only 79… far from a complete human experience
It seems you’re judging his life solely on the age when he died rather than all the things he did.
I think he’s really just trying to spur your imagination into imagining if someone like that had lived longer.
Anyway, this conversation has been had repeatedly. Many people seem to be unable to imagine that positive benefit of much longer lives.
Suppose that’s why “Science advances one funeral at a time.”
Imagine what a guy like that could do with 79 more years... or 10x of that.
It's not that outlandish: sharks, turtles, etc get far more years than we do.
It's shocking all billionaires aren't devoting all their resources to solving this cosmic crime against humanity.
I recognize and appreciate that you likely believe your contribution is one of optimism, but respectfully, I feel ill reading things like this.
Ever heard of Chesterton's fence? I don't believe we are more clever than our mother, the computational machinery of the universe. If we remove death, there will be great consequence.
Heck, it's arguable that the slow decline and death spiral we're in on this planet (empathatically NOT just human well-being metrics here), that this is already due to pushing death back, and systematically allowing power/opportunity to accumulate ever more deeply at scale of the selfish individual...
A complete human experience is to have relatively little time, no point in doing anything if you have 500 years to do it IMO.
Edit: Maybe there wouldn't be nilihism, but I don't think you could get more fulfilled with the extra time. I feel like an insect that lives 24 hours and a shark that lives several hundred have an equal feeling of accomplishment.
3 replies →