Re: Technical and Spiritual Development

From: Rodney Kelp (Rodneykelp605_at_hotmail.com)
Date: 01/22/05 

Date: Sat, 22 Jan 2005 10:18:09 -0500

If life were extended substantially the laws would change dramatically.
Having children would be banned and only birthed under strict governmental
control to keep the population from exploding.
Religion would become large groups of celibate radicals. Supression of all
things that show sex, love or thoughts of reproduction. There would probably
also be moves to castrate at birth and sewing up of the vagina. People could
not sleep together ever again.

"William Mook" <william.mook@mokindustries.com> wrote in message
news:1106397464.874854.234010@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com...
>A few years back I read in one of Carl Sagan's books a comment about
> the the shift in feeling towards slavery. In 1800 nearly all civilized
> people thought nothing of owning slaves. By 1900 nearly all civilized
> people were apalled at the thought of slavery. What happened? The
> civil war? No, the civil war was the RESULT of a shift of
> conciousness, not the effect. This gave Carl the great hope that
> someday humanity will have a similar shift of conciousness with regard
> to warfare. Sagan expressed the fervent hope that one day our present
> regard killing and dying for one's nation would be equally appalling as
> slavery is today for the vast majority of humanity. This is the only
> way, Sagan thought, humanity could survive the development of ever
> increasingly powerful weapons systems.
>
> A few months after Sagan died I read an article in JAMA about the
> impact of anesthetics on society. In 1800 modern anesthetics were
> unavailable. by 1900 they were commonplace. In 1800 suffering, from
> toothaches, childbirth, broken bones, disease, you name it, was a
> universal part of human experience. In 1900 suffering from physical
> pain was a rarity - pain was treatable. The impact this had on society
> was dramatic. Namely, when physical suffering was no longer a
> universal, the children born into a society free of pain were affected
> differently by the suffering of others. Anti-slavery, and
> anti-vivisectionist, and anti-cruelty societies arose for the first
> time and gained greater and greater import - resulting ultimately in
> the Civil War and the end of the practice of slavery.
>
> This was the answer Sagan was looking for with regards to slavery.
>
> Could there be a similar development that would lead to a sea change in
> the way we view killing and dying?
>
> Well, what if the medical arts advanced sufficiently so that people
> wouldn't age or die?
>
> http://longevity-science.org/Hi-International-2004.pdf
>
> We're not talking about keeping ancient people alive under bed rest
> here. What we're talking about is stopping or reversing the chemisty
> of the aging process.
>
> This I think would create a change in the way people think deeply about
> death. Death will no longer be a requirement of life. It may happen
> with increasing rarity due to accident or disease. But the inevitable
> decline of function with age will no longer be a part of human
> existence.
>
> This, if it were to occur, would have a dramatic impact on our feelings
> about death and dying. Children born into such a culture would mature
> and come to view death and dying quite differently than we do today.
> As a result, no civilized person would support killing or dying for any
> reason, or permit one to threaten death of another for any reason.
>
> This is a vast sea change waiting to happen.
> Everyone with the sensitivity of a Christ or a Buddah.
>

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