Good post.

And sometimes I do wonder how much of this kind of thinking is just us getting old. My kids think the future is so bright they've gotta wear shades.

I know people who are into life-extension, and clamp eagerly onto any new of ways to slow aging or even someday prevent it. I wonder sometimes if that's a good idea. The turnover of humanity is, in my opinion, a major driver of our cultural evolution. The old things pass away, and the new things come. Imagine people living to be 500. You want to see what "conservative" really means, that would be it. Stagnation.

And of course, trapped on this planet as we currently are, immortality would not make things much better. Who would get the treatments? Try restricting it to the "right" people and see what happens. A real anti-aging method showing up in our current societies would be like dropping a cat into a dog kennel.

I had hoped we'd be spread out into the Solar System a bit more by now. Gives us more options.