QotD: Social Impact of Immortality

March 22, 2011 By vorjack 62 Comments

I recently walked into a conversation about the supposed science of immortality. Someone had predicted that science would be able to prevent death by the year 2045; I didn’t catch who made the prediction.

One of the participants snarked that when the immortality drug came, his insurance wouldn’t cover it. It got me thinking.

What do you think the social and economic consequences of extreme human longevity might be?

I’ll posit that this hypothetical immortality require a treatment at regular intervals, say once every few years. Let’s also assume that given the enormous demand the treatment is expensive.

This would probably mean that only the wealthy could afford to keep up with the treatments necessary to suspend aging. The apocryphal comment from F. Scott Fitzgerald about the rich being different is now absolutely true: the rich don’t age and won’t die.

The cultural divide between rich and poor would increase. Lower class resentment would grow. The rich might become more conservative – after all, the loss of their fortune could not only impoverish them but actually kill them, and social upheaval that damaged the network of clinics could do much the same.

But put on your science fiction hats for a moment. What do you think would happen?

Filed Under: Medicine, Questions, Science Fiction 62 Comments

QotD: Longing for Meaning

February 7, 2011 By vorjack 34 Comments

Frank Schaeffer has a nice piece up at HuffPo – How Do You Pick Up the Pieces after Your Faith Fails. One section stood out to me:

As far as specific Christian faith, well, admit it, it is all about geography. You were born here, not there. That is why a particular theology challenged you. If you’d been born in say, Saudi Arabia, you’d have other questions about theology.

Theology per se, let alone theological correctness, doesn’t matter because it isn’t universal.

What is?: The longing for meaning.

The idea that all humans search for meaning in their lives is a very common one. It troubles me, because I don’t feel that way. Not only do I not feel that way, but I cannot even empathize with the people who do because it is so strange to me.

Since I cannot empathize, I look at people who claim that they derive meaning from their relationship to God and wonder if this really is the case. Despite the fact that Christ’s love supposedly gives their life direction, they live much the same way I do.

Do you feel that your life requires meaning? If so, how much does this affect the way you live?

Filed Under: Questions, Religion 34 Comments

QotD: Atheist Doubt

January 31, 2011 By vorjack 107 Comments

I’ve read any number of posts from moderate Christians talking about their relationship with doubt. Most seem to consider it part of the package; faith and doubt just coexist together.

It makes me wonder if there’s such a thing as atheistic doubt. I tend to think not. Doubt and skepticism tear down rather than build up. I don’t think you can doubt your way back into a faith structure, with all its varied traditions and beliefs.

What about you? Do you ever doubt your atheism? Where would this lead you if you did?

Filed Under: Atheism, Questions 107 Comments

Attention Whore?

January 10, 2011 By Daniel Florien 352 Comments

Vorjack stirred up some unintentional controversy when he used the phrase “attention whore” in a post. Some readers were offended. I had never heard of anyone being offended by it (except my mom, who is offended by everything), but I’m not always in the know on those things.

So, dear readers, are you offended by the phrase?

Update:

The final results are in!

No – 375 votes (94%)
Yes – 25 votes (6%)

The poll closed at 400 votes.

Filed Under: Meta, Questions 352 Comments

Connecting Speech and Action

January 9, 2011 By vorjack 162 Comments

By now, it’s likely you’ve already heard that Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona has been shot. As I’m writing this (Saturday evening), it’s unclear if she will survive or not. It does seem clear that a number of other people have been killed, including a nine-year-old girl.

There are a number of sources of information. I’ve been using Talking Points Memo, Andrew Sullivan has been live blogging the news and NPR has been making regular updates.

The journalists have been searching for information about the attacker, Jared Loughner, and they’ve found things like his youtube account and a Myspace page. In this modern era, it seems attackers aren’t going to be anonymous non-entities like Oswald was.

As his youtube videos seem to indicate, Loughner was unhinged. Perhaps because his motivations were murky, journalists are now pointing to the violent language that surrounded the political campaign against Giffords.

Giffords was one of the targets in Sarah Palin’s “cross-hairs campaign,” which listed a number of Democrats that Palin wanted defeated. A US map was displayed with cross-hairs over the states with a targeted candidate.

Gifford’s opponent, Jesse Kelly, held a fundraiser where donors could actually fire an M-16. From TPM, the fundraiser’s blurb:

Get on Target for Victory in November
Help remove Gabrielle Giffords from office
Shoot a fully automatic M16 with Jesse Kelly

Honestly, I’m not sure what to make of all of this.

Do you think semi-violent language, like Sarah Palin’s “Don’t retreat … reload” line and other tag lines, can lead some disturbed people to take violent action?

Do you think that modern politicians should take pains to moderate their language?

Update from Custador: US congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, who was shot in the head by a gunman in Arizona, is responding well to treatment and can follow simple commands after surgery, doctors say. (BBC Website). Fantastic news! Hope you don’t mind me slotting that into the end of your post, Vorjack.

Update from VorJack: Not a problem, Custador. Man, this is one tough lady.

Update from Dan: This is what Gabrielle Giffords said back in March:

We’re on Sarah Palin’s targeted list. But the thing is the way that she has it depicted has the crosshairs of a gunsight over our district. People who do that, they’ve got to realize there’s consequences to that action.

Unfortunately, she was right.

Filed Under: Current Events, Questions 162 Comments
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