That's one of the reasons I want to stay around for another 200+ years.
To take advantage of new technology.
Remember: "They haven't even invented things we can't live without."
I never heard of air conditioning as a child. Now, being w/o it is
unthinkable. Who could survive in this climate? Certainly no one could
be productive in the labs.
Please forward other exotic visions. They provide motivation to stay
invested in longevity research.
On 21 Feb 1995, Perry E. Metzger wrote:
>> [I am only cc'ing the mailing list listed in your cc line because you
> did, Mr. Ashley; if this material is inappropriate for the given
> mailing list (very likely the case) please inform me.]
>> Don Ashley says:
> > Please elaborate more on 'virtualized envt and space,' not only to
> > explain the concepts for those of us who haven't been educated, but for
> > population management options.
>> Presumably, in the far future (emphasis on far future there), most
> people might abandon their bodies, transforming themselves into
> software running in computers. One could, if one wished, have the
> illusion of a body in a virtual reality environment, and all the
> advantages of having a body, without having any of the limitations of
> being actually corporeal -- for example, "travel" would be
> instantaneous, and one could have the perfect illusion of being in any
> environment, as large or as small as one wished, with whatever
> contents one desired. When one had to interact with the "real world",
> such as if one wanted to go and explore the "real" universe, one could
> do so by telepresence or by donning a robotic body the way that a
> human now puts on a suit of clothing. In such an environment, one
> could conceivably pack far more people into the solar system because
> one would no longer need to maintain any physical space for corporeal
> beings but could simply transform the entirety of the mass of the
> system into computing infrastructure and maintainance equipment for
> that infrastructure.
>> Even extraordinarily pessimistic estimates hold that you could
> simulate a human brain quite completely in a space only a couple of
> centimeters on a side. Consider how much material would be available
> for building such constructs if most of the dead mass in the solar
> system was converted to this use.
>> Of course, one needn't limit oneself to just this solar system --
> there are billions of billions of them.
>> This is unlikely to happen for quite some time (lets not even
> speculate on how long.) However, it does point to one of the reasons
> why ultimately with sufficiently advanced technology one need no
> longer worry nearly as acutely about the space that humans take up.
>> Perry
>>
