Philosophy and bioethics can help us to think of how we should understand the world. As Marx says, the point of philosophy is to change it. There is a moral imperative to want to make the world a better place but surely it is through our actions that we will commit to this goal. So, what will be the blueprint for this change? It must be a plan to safeguard the future free from pandemics. it must also entail a plan for human flourishing. Vaccines promise a way out. They are after all, an enhancement aid. We do no die of old age but of the diseases of old age. Radical changes in health technology beckon, so does the potential for life extension and human capacity enhancement. There is an overriding moral obligation to embrace a transhumanist future of applications of medical technology. Such is my brief view of a better future. I hope that my lung buddies will agree with me.
When we come through, will the world ... - Lung Conditions C...
When we come through, will the world be a better place?
Go back to sleep Terry, you are frightening us all to death! 🤣
So I am your worst nightmare, Don? If I go back to sleep your nightmares might get worse.
It was your mention of ‘change’ that did it Terry. I’ve had enough of that to last what’s left of my life. Those words “There has been a change in .........” strike fear because it’s never for the better.☹️
I get where you are coming from Don but will quote to you the words of Lampedusa in his novel The Leopard: "If we want things to stay as they are, things will have to change." That is why I am not fearful of change, and at my age change is more a hope for the better than a regret.
My current situation has reduced me to thinking only of ‘now’.
Disagree, unfortunately. I don’t believe much will change after this: as a species, we are inherently short sighted and fickle. Whilst our technological understanding and ability has changed over the centuries, very little of the essence of mankind or our drives has changed with it, which is partly how we’ve ended up where we are, in a world full of greed and inequity. What is flourishing if it’s done at the expense of other species and the natural world?What makes us so arrogantly believe that the world is here purely to serve our wants and desires at the expense of so much else? Earth can barely sustain the human population as is, so how would an increased lifespan be of help to anyone? I very much hold to the tenet that just because we can do something, doesn’t mean we should. Case in point: we create CFCs, wreck the ozone layer with them, then replace CFCs with another chemical to try and restrict further expansion of the hole, only to now discover the alternative chemical that is now compulsory in all car air conditioning systems since 2017 is being found in dramatically increasing quantities in all water sources and the ice shelves. It doesn’t break down by any organic means, and we don’t have a process by which to get rid of it either: as a species, we are too arrogant and slow to acknowledge that we only understand a fraction of what goes on in the universe. We make decisions and take actions without first making absolutely sure that we’re not just swapping one damaging, potentially lethal situation for another, and then wonder why there’s been a dramatic, supposedly ‘inexplicable’ increase in certain diseases and conditions around the world. In western countries, many people now use antibac/antiviral products so routinely around the home, children no longer develop the same natural immunity to common, harmless viruses that aside from being necessary in their own right, are actually needed to help prime the immune system to respond against some of the ‘real’ threats we come up against. There’s also a suggestion that this impaired immune exposure is partly responsible for the huge surge in allergies that’s emerged over the last 20 years or so.
For me, personally, living longer does not equate to living a better, more meaningful, more compassionate and fulfilled existence, nor is it something I actually want. Look back through history, and for every problem or disease we think we ‘solve’, all I actually see is our incredible capacity to create more issues than we actually fix whilst telling each other how brilliant we are. We’re not brilliant, in universal terms we’re the pre-school child just getting to grips with their alphabet, with all the back to front and downright wrong letters to prove it.
You have made a number of important points here Charlie, with eloquence and sincerity. I disagree with some of them but that is another matter. Thank you.
I think no matter what we do Terry we cannot safeguard the future free from pandemics.
Love cx
I feel we need to understand our place on this planet, that said, if as individuals, we just worked to keep ourselves as healthy as possible, which many do not do, we would help a little. As to others, a little compassion towards others would be a good idea.
A chance to reboot. ....but in whose image?
Hopefully now many have appreciated the cleaner air, the blue sky, the sound of the birds, a new way of working and looking at the world , we could live in harmony with nature.
Maybe ...it depends on many things .
I am sorry, but we live in a world of must have technology and greed, there will always be someone who wants more. I wish I was going to live long enough to see an ultra modern utopia, unfortunately I have only months to live, but I do fear for my grandchildren and there children, ours was a much simpler time as a child back in the late 40s to 50s. Are we the cause?
I am truly sorry to read about your lifespan prognosis, Oldspark. In answer to your final question. what can I say? I also have grandchildren and share your concern about their futures. I have grown to believe that human endeavour, for good or bad, is determined by much greater forces than the individual person, so to apportion blame is a futile pastime, but only natural and so human. As a secular atheist I do not believe in gods or a god so I do not seek an answer in the supernatural. The answer of course is that there are no answers. I share your scepticism and as I wrote in my opening post to this thread, I am also a transhumanist. So technology, for me , is my answer to a longer lasting solution for mankind, in particular medical advances, to make our lives more bearable and fruitful.
I hope that you agree Oldspark. Thank you for sharing your thoughts with me and this group.
The greedy nature of those in power will try to revert things to the same old, same old world as we come out of the pandemic. We will need to work hard to curb them while this little bit of history progresses.
Transhumanist future of applications of medical technology ..... there’s a thought🤷♀️
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Good morning world ts a wonderful place. ;)
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