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The Rich and Powerful Want to Live Forever. What if They Could? • From the Kremlin to Silicon Valley, some of the most powerful people in the world now want something more: eternal life.
I wonder if rich folk understand 'immortality'? Conservative calculations indicate the universe will last trillions of years, mostly as a lightless void into which the last black holes will gradually evaporate. Imagine still being alive in eternal darkness, without any form of sensory input, evermore.
While they dream, they are destroying the world on which their lives depend, eradicating species with whom we are interwoven, poisoning the land, air and water to support their wealth, reducing other humans to a dwindling mob of peons they suppose will labour ceaselessly to keep them in their privileged bunkers. What happens when there's no one able to maintain the complex infrastructure they need to survive, when money is worthless and there is nothing it could buy anyway? Will their magic chemicals, rebuilt bodies, plastic faces and stolen organs withstand the rage of the slaves, the first encounter with toxic air, undrinkable water, the starvation diet that is all the world outside will offer?
Nah. If they are really fortunate, they'll die before their arrogance comes back to eat them, and their children, who will pay the price for their parents' hubris, as children so often do. Because these are just the escapist dreams of bullies who know that there is one fact they cannot defeat, even if they can postpone it a decade or two.
They don’t think in those terms. They only kick the can. Every controversy, mistake, pr flub… just kick the can. Death is the ultimate can, a game of Survivor no one watches… but they have convinced themselves they star in.
Are they alone? Look at the people who know what is coming but refuse to sacrifice to avert it or slow it down, or to adjust their lives to salvage at least some fellow earthlings, because they'd rather own individual cars than force the improvement of public transit by using it, wear the latest cheap fashion shipped from Asia, or own a cell phone/trendy brand, pay outrageous delivery charges rather than do simple cookery, et caetera, then blame ' 12 Corporations' -- oil companies whose profits depend on us riding in individual cars, buying goods made with plastic that is made with oil, shipped over the oceans in container ships and delivered in semis -- and the government, as if that relieves the rest of us of the responsibility to do anything ourselves. I suspect the last person kicking the can will not be a Bezos or an overpaid corner office denizen, but a grandchild of the slaving class, cursing long dead Boomers, not knowing who they were, for slamming the door to heaven behind them.
If only humanity had a long and rich repository of historical and allegorical stories about the pitfalls of hubris and defying nature that these cowardly little men could learn from.
Except there is a real peospect that it will be possible in the not ao distant future. Same with progress in robotics that might allow them to ignore the masses because they will not be reliant on us anymore
What's fucking awesome is that they will all fail, and all the money and power and whatever else they try to fill that yawning chasm inside them with will fall through their fingers like so much dust as they breathe their last.
I can only hope that some of them fail spectacularly like melting on live TV after announcing their new telomere extension therapy or something. Or exploding after taking a synthetic blood transfer.
I could stand for watching Vladimir Putins head explode like in Scanners after injecting himself with a serum made from Greenland shark blood or something other such mcguffin.
MrsWidgery | a day ago
I wonder if rich folk understand 'immortality'? Conservative calculations indicate the universe will last trillions of years, mostly as a lightless void into which the last black holes will gradually evaporate. Imagine still being alive in eternal darkness, without any form of sensory input, evermore.
While they dream, they are destroying the world on which their lives depend, eradicating species with whom we are interwoven, poisoning the land, air and water to support their wealth, reducing other humans to a dwindling mob of peons they suppose will labour ceaselessly to keep them in their privileged bunkers. What happens when there's no one able to maintain the complex infrastructure they need to survive, when money is worthless and there is nothing it could buy anyway? Will their magic chemicals, rebuilt bodies, plastic faces and stolen organs withstand the rage of the slaves, the first encounter with toxic air, undrinkable water, the starvation diet that is all the world outside will offer?
Nah. If they are really fortunate, they'll die before their arrogance comes back to eat them, and their children, who will pay the price for their parents' hubris, as children so often do. Because these are just the escapist dreams of bullies who know that there is one fact they cannot defeat, even if they can postpone it a decade or two.
THERE IS NO JUSTICE, JUST US.
<GNU Sir Pterry>
longbrass9lbd | 15 hours ago
They don’t think in those terms. They only kick the can. Every controversy, mistake, pr flub… just kick the can. Death is the ultimate can, a game of Survivor no one watches… but they have convinced themselves they star in.
MrsWidgery | 3 hours ago
Are they alone? Look at the people who know what is coming but refuse to sacrifice to avert it or slow it down, or to adjust their lives to salvage at least some fellow earthlings, because they'd rather own individual cars than force the improvement of public transit by using it, wear the latest cheap fashion shipped from Asia, or own a cell phone/trendy brand, pay outrageous delivery charges rather than do simple cookery, et caetera, then blame ' 12 Corporations' -- oil companies whose profits depend on us riding in individual cars, buying goods made with plastic that is made with oil, shipped over the oceans in container ships and delivered in semis -- and the government, as if that relieves the rest of us of the responsibility to do anything ourselves. I suspect the last person kicking the can will not be a Bezos or an overpaid corner office denizen, but a grandchild of the slaving class, cursing long dead Boomers, not knowing who they were, for slamming the door to heaven behind them.
Potential-Scholar359 | 10 hours ago
I love this for them. Hell didn’t exist so they’re building their own eternal prison.
kraghis | a day ago
The rich wanting immortality isn’t something new. This is just an indicator that we’re reaching French Revolution levels of societal bullshit
PM_ME__YOUR_HOOTERS | 19 hours ago
I hope i dont miss the mercury drinking part of immortality seekers this time around at least
username_redacted | a day ago
If only humanity had a long and rich repository of historical and allegorical stories about the pitfalls of hubris and defying nature that these cowardly little men could learn from.
SomewhereHot4527 | 3 hours ago
Except there is a real peospect that it will be possible in the not ao distant future. Same with progress in robotics that might allow them to ignore the masses because they will not be reliant on us anymore
monkeybawz | a day ago
What's fucking awesome is that they will all fail, and all the money and power and whatever else they try to fill that yawning chasm inside them with will fall through their fingers like so much dust as they breathe their last.
Such_Veterinarian682 | a day ago
I can only hope that some of them fail spectacularly like melting on live TV after announcing their new telomere extension therapy or something. Or exploding after taking a synthetic blood transfer.
monkeybawz | a day ago
I could stand for watching Vladimir Putins head explode like in Scanners after injecting himself with a serum made from Greenland shark blood or something other such mcguffin.
Such_Veterinarian682 | a day ago
Exactly. Just a few spectacular failures.
quillseek | 16 hours ago
Pretty much.
pk666 | 21 hours ago
No one can outlive a guillotine, at any age.
WhyDoesOklahomaExist | 16 hours ago
There’s no cure for guillotines.
ConsiderationDry9084 | 15 hours ago
Can someone with maxed Charisma convince these idiots to use tonics made with mercury, please.
It worked at least once before, lets see if we can get lucky again.
[OP] Naurgul | 15 hours ago
Based on the stories listed in the article, it's only a matter of time before they get tricked into trying something poisonous.
Alimbiquated | 14 hours ago
Although average life span is increasing, it's because of fewer premature deaths. There is no sign (yet) that modern medicine can prolong life.
One-Treat4655 | 14 hours ago
Lol. No they can't control aging. Biology is not a code.
Yung_zu | a day ago
They probably hit the guy that would discover immortality for them with a missile
rainywanderingclouds | a day ago
this is not interesting
even the poor would want to live forever if they weren't suffering from physical or mental anguish.
NotSayingJustSaying | a day ago
That's all they've ever wanted. That's always been the point.
ImCharlie_theUnicorn | 21 hours ago
One dark, eerie night, all power to the cryo* chambers turns off. What? How? Why? We have solar, gas, wind, etc. backup power!!!
Narrators voice: Little did the foolish elite know, it was impossible to keep the mutant rats from chewing their lines, and they all perished
db1965 | 19 hours ago
Immortal is not indestructible.
If they can be killed they are not immortal.
If they can't be killed but only disembodied and dismembered, they will realize immortality is overrated.
MartSTL | 15 hours ago
It’s because they want to control the narrative. They know that when they’re gone, people are going to tell the world how they really were.
ssh_captain1312 | 8 hours ago
[ Removed by Reddit ]
IJustWantCoffeeMan | 6 hours ago
"Then pay taxes and fund longevity research."
Incoherent rage