Re: Immortality changes everything.

On 12 Feb 2006 14:21:09 -0800, alanmc95210@xxxxxxxxx wrote:


Mishalak wrote:
alanmc95210@xxxxxxxxx wrote:
Mishalak wrote:
So why would an immortal change his behavior to be notably more cowardly?

By flying in airplanes and driving cars, we're reducing our life
expectancy by a few days, or months at most. Those immortals would be
reducing their potential life expectancy by millions of years. It
would be much safer to walk, or limit speeds of vehicles to 30 miles
per hour, etc. After all, if you've got forever, what's the hurry? It
wouldn't be worth the risk involved.- A. McIntire

Well that's just silly. People do not think in terms of millions of
years and risks logically. They think in terms of dinner, next week,
next year, and maybe five years if they are pretty disciplined. Look
at how many people put themselves at extraordinary risk trying to save
ten minutes trying to beat trains at railroad crossings. I remember
reading about an intersection in LA with cameras where they recorded an
average one car every two days going around the gates or racing through
to beat a train before they put in a quad gate system.

Plus even if a person does look at risks logically accidental death
doesn't go away by not driving or flying. Motor vehicle accidents only
make up 44.3% of accidental deaths.

What do you mean "ONLY"? By eliminating accidental motor vehicle
deaths, a permanently youthful person would increase his or her life
expectancy by a factor of 1.79- nothing to sneeze at.- A. McIntire

The other 66% are Falls 17.8%,
Poisonings 13.0%, Drowning 3.9%, Fires (burns and smoke) 3.4%,
Medical/Surgical Complication 3.1%, Other land transport 1.5%, Firearms
0.8%, and a full 17.8% are uncatagorizable. Everything from autoerotic
asphyxiation to electrocutions. What is a potential immortal to do,
avoid everything?

Not to mention that cars are most risky when a person is a new driver
(and doesn't think about dying, hrum). By age 50 the risk of death
from motor vehicle accident is about equal to that of that same age
group's risk of dying in a homicide (which is also lower than for young
people). And almost everyone, imortal or not, thinks he's a better
driver than that schlub who got in the accident.

Per trip airplanes are more dangerous than cars, but most accidents
happen at take off or landing and more often on unscheduled flights and
lighter aircraft than larger ones. For what most people think of when
it comes to air travel, major airline operating a jet, the fatality
rate is .019 per million, or 52.6 million to one odds of dying on a
single flight. Why worry about something that is only fifty percent
likely to happen if you take a long distance airline flight every
single day for 72,052 years (excluding the possibility of improved
airline safety in the future)?

I agree it's not a significant risk for me or you, but a perpetually
youthful person could double his life expectancy from 72,000 to
144,000 years by eliminating airplane travel.- A. McIntire



I have trouble believing that many people would think that long term
until they'd actually lived a significant fraction of those years.
And by that time the cancers would have probably got them anyway.

.

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