I'm curious what your thoughts are on transhumanism in regard to maturity. At present, maturity is closely tied to age. If we were to stop the aging process, how do you think maturity would be affected, if at all? Also, is it likely that stopping the aging process would preserve neural plasticity?
Well, it is hard to say really because there are so many possible futures in regards to radical life extension. It is likely that if we start to stop the aging process that the ways in which we do this will fundamentally change the human form. As a result, it is hard to say how maturity will change, but generally I believe that as we continue to evolve in new ways with technology that we will become far more intelligent - which is often culturally associated with higher maturity. Intelligence is plastic and always changing. Our brains are dynamic distributed systems that require complex environments for stimulation. Our brains will always be emergent and always changing. What we will need to do is figure out how our brains degenerate over time and figure out how we can stop this or change this from happening while still keeping "you" "you".If we were to stop the aging process, how do you think maturity would be affected, if at all?
Also, is it likely that stopping the aging process would preserve neural plasticity?
Hmm. I haven't really thought much about this, though there are certainly a lot of instances in science fiction of this. I wonder what "the human experience" would be like in a future with humans embodied in perhaps a variety of forms. Interesting stuff! Good experience with Huffington Post so far?It is likely that if we start to stop the aging process that the ways in which we do this will fundamentally change the human form.
In a theory I'm developing (I hope to publish it academically), the next metasystem transition will be the end of "biological humans" - it will be a new era. The system-level patterns will be predictable but how we as individual agents develop in this system will be harder to know. And yes I've liked writing with them so far. We'll see what happens! I hope to use it as a platform for future exposure and better science writing opportunities.I wonder what "the human experience" would be like in a future with humans embodied in perhaps a variety of forms.