[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by gjc8

[joke]Meh, we're all gonna get eaten by grey goo anyway, right? [/joke]

I'm trying to make freinds with the grey goo so it will eat me last :P

I'm not sure that's true, depending on what you mean by "change what it is to be human" or to end a society.

If I remove or alter a basic limitation of being human, that changes what it means to be human. If I create a system by which megabytes of data can be downloaded into the human brain (lets just steal the gizmo from DOLLHOUSE shall we), then I can grant everybody on the planet an education that would make the proverbial Renaisance man look ignorant. Knowledge is power, power would be radically democratised (although control of the syatem would be a major bone of contention). Change the power dynamics in every human society, and you upend the social hierarchy of every society, effectively ending it. Any technical change that alters the basic rules of life, transforms society.

Now, there are some arguments that transhumanism (especially intelligence enhancement and AI) are more radical than the industrial revolution, better compared to the development of agriculture or even the origin of life.

Agreed, and some of these technolgies would need only a partial success to transform the world.

Moderate life extension is hardly a revolutionary change. Life expectancy has increased by more than 25 years in the last century (US). Even after factoring out infant mortality, you see 15-20 year increases.

First, those increases are to the Average life expectancy. The very oldest people in the Third World and the industrial nations were in the same general range. What I'm talking about is an increase in both the Average and the Absolute life expectancy. Thus an average lifespan of 150 years and an absolute life of 240 years. (150=2*75; 240=2*120)

Inequality of outcomes is nothing new, either. Even without life-extension therapy, sanitation, clean water, and basic medical access (vaccines, etc) have huge effects, but you don't see a universal presence in the modern world.

Indefinite life-extension might be another story, but with accidents (and violence) still taking their toll, I'm not even sure about that.

If the increase is enough to create the illusion that those getting the treatment are more than human and make the misery of those unable to get the treatment sharper and the world seem less just, then society will be made to change. Dramatically!