Breakthrough Prize for Scientific Discoveries that extend human life

[Gold]

Anybody has any thoughts on this?  --> wiki quote:

The Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences is a monetary award, funded by internet entrepreneurs: Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan of Facebook; Sergey Brin of Google; entrepreneur and venture capitalist Yuri Milner; and Anne Wojcicki, one of the founders of the genetics company 23andMe. The Chairman of the Board is Arthur D. Levinson of Apple.

 

The award of $3 million, the largest award in the sciences, is given to researchers who have made discoveries that extend human life.

 

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

 

Also, isn't this immortal creature cute and glowy  http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/02/magazine/can-a-jellyfish-unlock-the-secret-of-immortality.html

[Wesley]

I think that humans will at some point, not die of old age and lifestyle diseases. Possibly in my lifetime, though it is hard to know. Humans will still die of accidents, diseases, and choosing to die will create some interesting moral and philosophical dilemmas for the future.

 

I think that from a purely technological standpoint, it will be amazing.

 

I also fear it happening with the current state of human morality. All you need to do is read Llyod Demause's The Origins of War in Child Abuse to understand my worry (which is free as an audiobook in the free books section of FDR).

 

I view the race between evolving human morality and immortality as somewhat opponents. For if people in older psycho-classes are not dying, we may never evolve to a society without child abuse, war, religion, and the other moral horrors in the world today.

 

So, it is amazing, but it provides a clock for us philosophers. We want people who do not die of old age to be the peaceful, empathetic, and rational people of the future. Not what we see prevalent today.