"Actuarial Escape Velocity" and immortality - Religion, God, and Theology

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"Actuarial Escape Velocity" and immortality

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02-07-2012 , 12:51 PM

revots33

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I read an article a while back about Kurzweil and it mentioned the concept of actuarial escape velocity:

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“actuarial escape velocity,” a transhumanist term for that moment in the acceleration of biomedical progress when, for every year you live, technology adds another year or more to your maximum life span. It’s a tipping point that, theoretically at least, never stops tipping.

So in the article there are people on an ultra-calorie-restricted diet, trying to love long enough to reach the point of AEV, and therefore immortality.

So I am wondering how this event, if reached, would effect religious belief? Obviously a big part of many major religions is the concept of afterlife/immortality. Would religions just fade away if aging was cured and humans could live forever on earth thanks to science?

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02-07-2012 , 01:35 PM

Stu Pidasso

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Quote:

Originally Posted by revots33

I read an article a while back about Kurzweil and it mentioned the concept of actuarial escape velocity:

So in the article there are people on an ultra-calorie-restricted diet, trying to love long enough to reach the point of AEV, and therefore immortality.

So I am wondering how this event, if reached, would effect religious belief? Obviously a big part of many major religions is the concept of afterlife/immortality. Would religions just fade away if aging was cured and humans could live forever on earth thanks to science?

You could never live forever. Only a long time. While cancer or heart disease won't get you....eventually you will have a catastrophic accident that does you in(like accidently blow yourself to bits while cooking up some meth or something).

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02-07-2012 , 02:10 PM

batair

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Not if i backup my mind daily and have a robot body to reboot it into.

And yes if there was a magic everlasting life pill some religions would be in trouble when their followers started putting faith in it instead of the everlasting life of other realms.

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02-07-2012 , 05:23 PM

Michael

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No, no, no….entropy will eventually take care of any hope of eternal life, the sun, the universe, etc. Religions will just redefine life after death.

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02-07-2012 , 05:37 PM

jokerthief

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I am a transhumanist and I also believe in God. My theory is that God's intention for the Universe was to evolve a creator being that can spread intelligence throughout the cosmos. What this means and the implications of this are incomprehensible to us now with our limited intelligence IMO. A technological singularity needs to happen before we will even begin to have a clue as to what this means in a metaphysical sense.

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02-07-2012 , 05:39 PM

neeeel

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@Jokerthief
do you have any reasoning behind this theory, or is it something you just made up?

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02-07-2012 , 05:49 PM

jokerthief

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Yes and yes.

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02-07-2012 , 09:02 PM

NotReady

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Originally Posted by revots33

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aubrey_de_Grey

I heard about this guy on an RTB podcast. Though he only mentioned him briefly, Dr. Rana seemed to think he has to be taken seriously. I don't know much about it but pretty sure it goes way past diet.

Anyway, it came up in the context of people in the Bible (and in some ancient Egyptian texts) who lived 1k years. So it isn't theoretically impossible.

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02-07-2012 , 09:15 PM

jokerthief

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Originally Posted by NotReady

We will definitely be able to slow down the aging process pretty soon. Aubrey isn't the only person working on the problem of aging. Here's a TED talk about some recent research: TED TALK

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02-07-2012 , 09:58 PM

#10

Piers

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Mortality rate reaches a minimum at around age 28, its likely most ageing related factors are missing from this figure so it makes a nice estimate of mortality less ageing. If you fit the numbers (I did so in a post about a year ago) you get a life expectancy of around 500 years. A possible guess for life expectancy in a century or so. Is this what you mean be actuarial escape velocity?

I doubt it would have much impact on religious belief. After all there are plenty of examples in the bible of people living over 500 years so I am sure it can all be made to fit.

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02-08-2012 , 12:28 AM

#11

batair

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Quote:

Originally Posted by Michael

No, no, no….entropy will eventually take care of any hope of eternal life, the sun, the universe, etc. Religions will just redefine life after death.

Once religion redefines life after death its a new version of that religion and the old version is in trouble.

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02-08-2012 , 02:53 AM

#12

Stu Pidasso

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Quote:

Originally Posted by batair

A back up copy of you isn't the real you. Its only a facsimile. The preachers would tell you it has no soul.

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02-08-2012 , 03:45 AM

#13

tame_deuces

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Quote:

Originally Posted by Stu Pidasso

A back up copy of you isn't the real you. Its only a facsimile. The preachers would tell you it has no soul.

And it would be very embarassing to run into it at dinner parties, especially if it started telling stories about you.

Spoiler:

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02-08-2012 , 12:54 PM

#14

batair

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Quote:

Originally Posted by Stu Pidasso

A back up copy of you isn't the real you. Its only a facsimile. The preachers would tell you it has no soul.

It would be me if i could download me into a computer.

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02-08-2012 , 03:10 PM

#15

Stu Pidasso

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Quote:

Originally Posted by batair

It would be me if i could download me into a computer.

If you made copies of you....say 10,000 copies of you using this method...would you be in 10,001 places at once?

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02-08-2012 , 05:04 PM

#16

carlo

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Quote:

Originally Posted by revots33

Zeno's paradox, revisited;the hare never catches the tortoise.

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02-09-2012 , 12:45 AM

#17

batair

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Originally Posted by Stu Pidasso

If you made copies of you....say 10,000 copies of you using this method...would you be in 10,001 places at once?

Yes all the copies at the moment of their creation would be me. At least until they diverged and had their own experiences. Then they would be slightly different versions of me.

Beside if this was possible i would not care if i was a copy and not the true me anyway. If it would feel like me and talk like me and think like me. Whats the difference. Its as good as immortality even if its not on some technicality.

But this is all off topic anyway. The ops question is if immortality was possible would it affect religions. The answer is yes. Some of them. You can claim its not possible. Buts thats just a dodge.

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02-09-2012 , 01:00 AM

#18

jokerthief

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Quote:

Originally Posted by batair

Here's a cool video where Ray Kurzweil talks about this kind of thing. It's pretty short.

http://www.closertotruth.com/video-p...-Kurzweil-/632

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02-09-2012 , 01:22 AM

#19

batair

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Thanks good video.

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