I actually do think death is inevitable, but I'll comment more about that on the Infinity thread.
Phil Philip, the term 'Immortality' has several different definitions.
(1) Indestructibility. This is the sense that Rand used the term. I agreed that indestructibility is impossible and I also agree with Rand's proposed basis for morality.
(2) Indefinite (infinite) life-span. This is the sense that I am using the term. I claim that this is possible if an entity made continuous efforts to stay alive and applied extra ingenuity to decrease the risk of death a little each year. This does not contradict 1. Just because an entity is not indestructible, does not mean that death is inevitable. Suppose the risk of death was decreasing a bit each year. Adding up an infinite number of such risk factors (representing the risk each year for an infinite number of years) can actually still be a finite total risk. So the risk of death would never rise above a fixed percentage even after infinite time. This sounds counter intuitive but it s a proven mathematical fact. Example:
1 + 1/2 + 1/4 + 1/8 + 1/16 + .... 1/infinity = ?
The result of this infinite series of fractions can never exceed 2.
So an entity that was continuously applying ingenuity to reduce risk a little more each year would never have more than say a 10% chance of death over an infinite time frame (for example).
What I've said here is entirely relevant to this thread. I just wanted to point that the logical consequences of the Randian moral imperative (affirmation of life) is that rational entities (humans) should make the effort to deploy scientific ingenuity to strive to achieve immortality (in the second sense of the term) and this fact has not generally been realized by Objectivists.
For those who are interested in the scientific and philosophical aspects of life extension, there's going to be new book coming out very soon called "The Scientific Conquest of Death". Note: I am one of the authors! :) Here's a link telling you all about it:
The Scientific Conquest of Death: Book Info
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