I already had a couple beers already so here's my unfiltered thoughts:
I really don't know. My own idea / feeling is that some "elites" have come to realize that there are certain human limitations that they can never hope to even pay to overcome - death and space travel are two major examples, though some may dispute the space travel one.
At the same time they are realizing this (generationally perhaps), they see that the standard of living for everyday plebs has been creeping upwards for decades... almost 2 centuries. It must disturb some of them that they can't gain access to the things they want, things that they would perceive as surpassing the ordinary existence (and they can probably think of things far crazier than I'm able to) and which would make them more special than other humans, such as immortality and proper space travel, (again, just for example);
whereas the "plebs" gain more and more, relatively in their own lives, every year; they live longer and longer, have better and better food etc. access to better tech - again relatively, which is important, because satisfaction is relative, which must make "elites" seethe.
I imagine some of these "elite" would actively seek to make life worse for people in general, based on this perceived discrepancy of progress between their own lives and the lives of ordinary people. This may be conscious or sub-conscious, but I imagine it drives them in some way. There definitely seems to be a desire to have society return to a more feudal state, albeit a modern, technocratic, one.
Have you looked into the billions being dropped into stopping the aging process? They are working on delaying death alright. Problem is, aging is multi-causal. We already know how some human cells, through replication at least, are immortal. It's called cancer. Now, how to do that for the non-cancer cells is really, really tricky.
I watched some stuff about Aubrey de Grey some years ago, but given what I've discovered since then about psuedoscience like neuro-science, DNA sequencing, the delusion and misconception of microbiology and the like; the corruption of science in general: I reckon he's either delusional or a con man. Death has already been greatly delayed as regards life expectancy. I guess we'll know what upper limit is capable with unlimited funds when we see how old Queen Elizabeth is when she dies (if not already dead), or Rothschild.
However there are stories, and I reckon they have some degree of truth, of old monks who practiced taichi, yoga, qigong and whatnot, living to be 120 or older, and being agile till their last day. and of course there are legends of people living to be hundreds of years old in various ancient texts. It makes me wonder if it's not a case of our modern understanding not living up to what appears to be lost knowledge / wisdom from older civilizations.
The people that lived in Genesis to be hundreds of years old is a combination of translation, and allegorical text written to say "he lived to be very old" by saying a large number. It's like saying it "we ate some much ice cream for my birthday, it was piled a mile high".
I already had a couple beers already so here's my unfiltered thoughts:
I really don't know. My own idea / feeling is that some "elites" have come to realize that there are certain human limitations that they can never hope to even pay to overcome - death and space travel are two major examples, though some may dispute the space travel one.
At the same time they are realizing this (generationally perhaps), they see that the standard of living for everyday plebs has been creeping upwards for decades... almost 2 centuries. It must disturb some of them that they can't gain access to the things they want, things that they would perceive as surpassing the ordinary existence (and they can probably think of things far crazier than I'm able to) and which would make them more special than other humans, such as immortality and proper space travel, (again, just for example);
whereas the "plebs" gain more and more, relatively in their own lives, every year; they live longer and longer, have better and better food etc. access to better tech - again relatively, which is important, because satisfaction is relative, which must make "elites" seethe.
I imagine some of these "elite" would actively seek to make life worse for people in general, based on this perceived discrepancy of progress between their own lives and the lives of ordinary people. This may be conscious or sub-conscious, but I imagine it drives them in some way. There definitely seems to be a desire to have society return to a more feudal state, albeit a modern, technocratic, one.
Have you looked into the billions being dropped into stopping the aging process? They are working on delaying death alright. Problem is, aging is multi-causal. We already know how some human cells, through replication at least, are immortal. It's called cancer. Now, how to do that for the non-cancer cells is really, really tricky.
I watched some stuff about Aubrey de Grey some years ago, but given what I've discovered since then about psuedoscience like neuro-science, DNA sequencing, the delusion and misconception of microbiology and the like; the corruption of science in general: I reckon he's either delusional or a con man. Death has already been greatly delayed as regards life expectancy. I guess we'll know what upper limit is capable with unlimited funds when we see how old Queen Elizabeth is when she dies (if not already dead), or Rothschild.
However there are stories, and I reckon they have some degree of truth, of old monks who practiced taichi, yoga, qigong and whatnot, living to be 120 or older, and being agile till their last day. and of course there are legends of people living to be hundreds of years old in various ancient texts. It makes me wonder if it's not a case of our modern understanding not living up to what appears to be lost knowledge / wisdom from older civilizations.
The people that lived in Genesis to be hundreds of years old is a combination of translation, and allegorical text written to say "he lived to be very old" by saying a large number. It's like saying it "we ate some much ice cream for my birthday, it was piled a mile high".