I’m sure someone has said this already, but this subject is one of my pet peeves. Immortality is the WORST thing that could happen to us.

First, the tech will be very expensive and exclusive. It will create the ultimate have/have-not economic crisis. Think the US healthcare debate got ugly? Wait until we debate why only the hyper-rich get to live indefinitely. Think civil war and revolution.

Next, what happens when dictators live indefinitely, and keep power by granting indefinite life status to key people who prop up their regime? Seriously… what if Dear Leader in North Korea didn’t die? What if [em]Stalin[/em] never died? Humanity stagnates, nothing ever passes on to someone else, and everything becomes like some ridged hindu caste system with the untouchables being the ones who die regularly. Think thats impossible? That is what it will look like if humanity survives the wars that will be fought over the privilege of immortality. The winners will be the ones who get to be immortal.

And immortality will be a drag. Think of never getting a promotion, never retiring, never hoping anymore because it will always be the same. The economy will change only according to the suicide/accident rate and the death rate of the underclasses who can’t afford the treatments. And forget having children, unless you want to eat soylent green.

The best we could hope for is a scenario like in Michael Moorcock’s [em]Dancers at the End of Time[/em] series, where humans are extremely low in population but immense in power, so much so that anything they do to the planet doesn’t really matter anymore. The Earth is merely a substrate for their artistic whims. Personally, I don’t want that future.

People like Kurtzweil who want immortality drive me crazy.