Lee-I definitely see your point about the food. I did rather oversimplify many aspects of our culture that arise out of motivations other than because of the fear of death in order to make my point. It is more complicated than that. I think probably a lot of my statements could be argued in a manner similar to your comment. Thanks for bringing it up, you are a really useful engine.

As a final point, keeping people away from our “favorite meals” is not necessarily done because we’re scared of death, but rather because why would we exacerbate a state of mind (death) we know nothing about with agents (the foods mentioned) proven to expedite the process? Why NOT keep our kids away from something known to be harmful to the fragility of human life, especially over the long term? And are those our favorite foods because of something intrinsic found within human genes or because society says those should be our favorite foods? Perhaps someone raised in a family in which fatty foods are strictly taboo would find a piece of fried chicken much more detestable than a raw piece of broccoli. I disagree that people keep their kids away from such foods because of a fear of death, but rather because of the reasoning “why not?” Staying healthy does not just stave off death, it also promotes better health, and thus more vigor and/or vitality for earthly activities and experiences (i.e. hiking) that would not as easily be appreciated without the base of a healthy lifestyle. Not to mention a healthy lifestyle promotes more aesthetically pleasing features which are beneficial more often than not, as sad as that may seem. Apologies for focusing on one tiny detail of your post, but I don’t think the example of shielding our children from certain types of food is necessarily because of an increase of our fear of death but could be a result of many contributing factors. I don’t even know if any of this makes sense, it’s 3 a.m. and time for bed.

How’s that for a deep and thoughtful post?

I don’t really feel a need to live through them, I just have a curiosity.

I’m personally very skeptical that mind-uploading will prove a path to immortality. An active upload would diverge so rapidly that within a day it would be a radically different person. An inactive upload could serve as a backup, of course, though there would be some inevitable memory loss.

I’ve always thought of the Singularity as less of a way of staying exactly the same throughout all time, and more of a way of preserving a continuity of experience for as long as possible, while continuing to grow far beyond the bounds of anything that could be called human. Whether I survive forever is problematic, because the I that exists now would be lost in what grows from it.

Regardless, it’s a better deal then getting recycled by the biosphere for raw materials.