X-Message-Number: 31519
From: Mark Plus <>
Subject: "Amortality" and narcissism
Date: Wed, 18 Mar 2009 08:40:39 -0700


Apparently no one picked up on the subtext of the Time article about 
"amortality" as one of the 10 ideas allegedly "changing the world" in 2009:



http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1884779_1884782_1884758,00.html

Quote:

'Amortals live among us. In their teens and 20s, they may seem
preternaturally experienced. In later life, they often look young and
dress younger. They have kids early or late - sometimes very late - or
not at all. Their emotional lives are as chaotic as their financial
planning. The defining characteristic of amortality is to live in the
same way, at the same pitch, doing and consuming much the same things,
from late teens right up until death.'


This brought to my recollection blogger John Bruce's post in 2006 about the 
narcissistic aspects of transhumanism:

http://mthollywood.blogspot.com/2006/05/transhumanism-and-narcissism-i.html

Transhumanism and Narcissism(Quoting from this source: 
http://www.halcyon.com/jmashmun/npd/traits.html#time )

'Narcissists have a weird sense of time. It's more or
less like they are not aware that the passage of time changes things,
or maybe they just aren't aware of time's passing at all. Years can
pass without touching narcissists. Narcissists often look, or think
they look, significantly younger than they are; this youthful
appearance is a point of pride to them, and some will emphasize it by
either preserving the styles of their golden youth or following the
styles of people the age they feel they "really" are. That their faces
don't show their chronological age is a good sign that they haven't
been living real lives with real life's wear and tear on the looks of
normal people. The narcissists' years have passed without touching
them.'


I don't consider narcissism necessarily a bad thing. Narcissistic individuals 
seem to enjoy advantages in acquiring wealth and status in competitive, 
personality-driven fields like politics, show business, sales or TV evangelism. 
Given the speculative relationship between narcissism and a "weird sense of 
time" that resists or denies aging, perhaps cryonics organizations should look 
into recruiting more high achieving, narcissistic "amortals" as members. (To add
to the ones we have already, in other words!)


BTW, "The New Calvinism" shows up on the same list in that bit of Time ephemera.
Apparently narcissistic amortality (a form of "incurvatus in se") has to 
compete with total depravity in current trends about one's self-image.


"Around 2010 the world will be at a new orbit in history. . .  Life expectancy 
will be indefinite. Disease and disability will nonexist. Death will be rare and
accidental -- but not permanent. We will continuously jettison our obsolescence
and grow younger." F.M. Esfandiary, "Up-Wing Priorities" (1981).
http://www.box.net/shared/static/ay9lub60ha.pdf
http://www.scribd.com/doc/10948503/Up-Wing-Priorities


Mark Plus



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