I believe humanity will first achieve ...
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Define immortality (Score:4, Insightful)
If you read Peter F. Hamilton's Commonwealth Saga and Void Trilogy, you'll see his take on immortality.
Essentially it boils down to a combination of mind upload, cloning and mind download into the new clone.
The body isn't immortal, and there is always the risk of body-loss, but with proper care, it will always be possible to restore the mind from an earlier backup.
Re:Dependency (Score:5, Insightful)
Uploading, sure... (Score:5, Insightful)
But what good is an upload if you can't restore?
Nobody ever thinks about the restore.
I voted for extinction (Score:5, Insightful)
I voted for extinction because it's the only one where we have the slightest clue of having a way to actually do it. Everything else is pure pie-in-the-sky handwavium now.
Re:World peace at great cost (Score:5, Insightful)
A police state is not at peace.
It is just a war in which one side -- the ones who label themselves "the state" -- is unilaterally winning.
States are just made of people, so if a state is turning against its people, then there is a war between "the people" and some other people -- "the state". Just because the latter is winning hands down, doesn't make it any less of a war.
Re:Of course... (Score:5, Insightful)
Teleporting bombs into enemy territory
You don't get it. If we have teleportation, then it doesn't make sense to have border at all. It would simply destroy this old concept, as people (and things) could freely move in and out without any sorts of control.
but I think the majority of us would rather have constant warfare and free will, than peace and slavery
Well, currently, we have a bit of warfare (but frankly, not much) and a total slavery (open your eyes), and very few are complaining.
Re:Of course... (Score:5, Insightful)
You don't get it. If we have teleportation, then it doesn't make sense to have border at all. It would simply destroy this old concept, as people (and things) could freely move in and out without any sorts of control.
I'm not sure that you get it either. Teleportation doesn't imply the ability to teleport to anywhere. There might be a requirement for a receiver, for one thing.
Also, your argument isn't valid for other reasons. Like it being equally true for the invention of planes. So why didn't we get a diaspora and eradication of borders in the years leading up to WWII?
Part of the answer is that new technology is never "freely" usable. Only people of means will have access for a long, long time. Poor people still can't fly anywhere they want.
Another part is that most people like it just fine where they are, or would rather deal with the devil they know than the devil they don't.
Then there's the whole politics and power thing. How long do you think it would take before the people in power would impose laws making unauthorized teleportation an act of terrorism, and the unwashed masses would thank their masters for "protecting" them?
I would think that many of the common religions would be the strongest opponents - it would jeopardize put the whole "soul" superstition. Especially if you don't have to destroy the original, or can create multiple copies, but even a straight one-to-one teleportation might be problematic - does it involve a suicide and resurrection?
Re:Dependency (Score:4, Insightful)
She's mentioned in the Dead Sea scrolls, however not in a book that would become canonical (or, for that matter, that was known before the discovery of the DSS.) It was not included in the King James version because it wasn't even known at the time the King James was translated. It was simply an obscure, first century Jewish manuscript lost when Palestine was destroyed by the Romans, long before Christianity had any power to speak of.
As for Lilith in the KJV, there is significant debate about the meaning of the Hebrew word used in Isaiah 34:14 (the only canonical reference to Lilith.) I am not a Hebrew scholar (my doctorate's in New Testament) so I can only defer to those who are, who tell me that the meaning is dubious.
No need for conspiracy theories.
Re:Of course... (Score:5, Insightful)
Calling western society "total slavery" is the kind of myopia possible only in a society without actual slavery in it it. Or from a person with the social/emotional development of an adolescent.
Re:And mind uploading... (Score:5, Insightful)
I think there is more negatives than positives. Once it can be determined without a doubt what you are thinking you'll no longer only get blamed for your actions we won't be long from thought-crimes. Also there is a huge amount of the (romance?) of history to be lost. We like to think how nobly Reagan stared down the commi threat, or how evil Stalin was etc. But what if we read their thoughts and Stalin really thought he was doing a good thing and Reagan was a meglomaniac that was obssessed with his public image? Sometimes nice to give people credit for their actions without going into their own personal judgments, weaknesses etc.
Re:And mind uploading... (Score:2, Insightful)
But what if we read their thoughts and Stalin really thought he was doing a good thing
Totalitarians typically DO believe they are doing good when they commit genocide.