The Fable Of The Dragon-Tyrant
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The Fable Of The Dragon-Tyrant
"The Fable of the Dragon-Tyrant" is a 2005 short story about ageing and death by the Swedish philosopher Nick Bostrom. It relates the misery inflicted by a dragon-tyrant (a personification of the ageing process and death), who demands a tribute of tens of thousands of people's lives per day and the actions of the people, including the king, who come together to fight back, eventually killing the dragon-tyrant. Arguments The story argues that humans for most of history have lacked the tools to fight the monster of death, but now the capacity to fight it may exist. The fable thus addresses the themes of death acceptance and resignation to fate in the face of ageing and critiques the pro-aging trance. Publication history The story has been published in ''Philosophy Now'', and the ''Journal of Medical Ethics''. It has been translated into multiple languages, including Chinese, Czech, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Polish, Russian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian and ...
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Nick Bostrom
Nick Bostrom ( ; sv, Niklas Boström ; born 10 March 1973) is a Swedish-born philosopher at the University of Oxford known for his work on existential risk, the anthropic principle, human enhancement ethics, superintelligence risks, and the reversal test. In 2011, he founded the Oxford Martin Program on the Impacts of Future Technology, and is the founding director of the Future of Humanity Institute at Oxford University. In 2009 and 2015, he was included in ''Foreign Policy''s Top 100 Global Thinkers list. Bostrom is the author of over 200 publications, and has written two books and co-edited two others. The two books he has authored are '' Anthropic Bias: Observation Selection Effects in Science and Philosophy'' (2002) and '' Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies'' (2014). ''Superintelligence'' was a ''New York Times'' bestseller, was recommended by Elon Musk and Bill Gates among others, and helped to popularize the term "superintelligence". Bostrom believes that sup ...
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WikiProject Novels
A WikiProject, or Wikiproject, is a Wikimedia movement affinity group for contributors with shared goals. WikiProjects are prevalent within the largest wiki, Wikipedia, and exist to varying degrees within sister projects such as Wiktionary, Wikiquote, Wikidata, and Wikisource. They also exist in different languages, and translation of articles is a form of their collaboration. During the COVID-19 pandemic, CBS News noted the role of Wikipedia's WikiProject Medicine in maintaining the accuracy of articles related to the disease. Another WikiProject that has drawn attention is WikiProject Women Scientists, which was profiled by '' Smithsonian'' for its efforts to improve coverage of women scientists which the profile noted had "helped increase the number of female scientists on Wikipedia from around 1,600 to over 5,000". On Wikipedia Some Wikipedia WikiProjects are substantial enough to engage in cooperative activities with outside organizations relevant to the field at issue. For e ...
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Transhumanism In Fiction
Many of the tropes of science fiction can be viewed as similar to the goals of transhumanism. Science fiction literature contains many positive depictions of technologically enhanced human life, occasionally set in utopian (especially techno-utopian) societies. However, science fiction's depictions of technologically enhanced humans or other posthuman beings frequently come with a cautionary twist. The more pessimistic scenarios include many dystopian tales of human bioengineering gone wrong. Examples of "transhumanist fiction" include novels by Linda Nagata, Greg Egan, and Hannu Rajaniemi. Transhuman novels are often philosophical in nature, exploring the impact such technologies might have on human life. Nagata's novels, for example, explore the relationship between the natural and artificial, and suggest that while transhuman modifications of nature may be beneficial, they may also be hazardous, so should not be lightly undertaken. Egan's Diaspora explores the nature of ideas ...
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Philosophical Fiction
Philosophical fiction refers to the class of works of fiction which devote a significant portion of their content to the sort of questions normally addressed in philosophy. These might explore any facet of the human condition, including the function and role of society, the nature and motivation of human acts, the purpose of life, ethics or morals, the role of art in human lives, the role of experience or reason in the development of knowledge, whether there exists free will, or any other topic of philosophical interest. Philosophical fiction works would include the so-called ''novel of ideas'', including some science fiction, utopian and dystopian fiction, and the ''Bildungsroman''. Philosophical fiction : ''This is only a list of some major philosophical fiction. For all philosophical novels, see :Philosophical novels. There is no universally accepted definition of philosophical fiction, but a sampling of notable works can help to outline its history. Some philosophers writ ...
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Fiction About Monarchy
Fiction is any creative work, chiefly any narrative work, portraying individuals, events, or places that are imaginary, or in ways that are imaginary. Fictional portrayals are thus inconsistent with history, fact, or plausibility. In a traditional narrow sense, "fiction" refers to written narratives in prose often referring specifically to novels, novellas, and short stories. More broadly, however, fiction encompasses imaginary narratives expressed in any medium, including not just writings but also live theatrical performances, films, television programs, radio dramas, comics, role-playing games, and video games. Definition Typically, the fictionality of a work is publicly marketed and so the audience expects the work to deviate in some ways from the real world rather than presenting, for instance, only factually accurate portrayals or characters who are actual people. Because fiction is generally understood to not fully adhere to the real world, the themes and context of ...
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Parables
A parable is a succinct, didactic story, in prose or verse, that illustrates one or more instructive lessons or principles. It differs from a fable in that fables employ animals, plants, inanimate objects, or forces of nature as characters, whereas parables have human characters. A parable is a type of metaphorical analogy. Some scholars of the canonical gospels and the New Testament apply the term "parable" only to the parables of Jesus, although that is not a common restriction of the term. Parables such as the parable of the Prodigal Son are important to Jesus's teaching method. Etymology The word ''parable'' comes from the Greek παραβολή (''parabolē''), literally "throwing" (''bolē'') "alongside" (''para-''), by extension meaning "comparison, illustration, analogy." It was the name given by Greek rhetoricians to an illustration in the form of a brief fictional narrative. History The Bible contains numerous parables in the Gospels of the New Testament ( Jesus' ...
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Fictional Personifications Of Death
Fiction is any creative work, chiefly any narrative work, portraying individuals, events, or places that are imaginary, or in ways that are imaginary. Fictional portrayals are thus inconsistent with history, fact, or plausibility. In a traditional narrow sense, "fiction" refers to written narratives in prose often referring specifically to novels, novellas, and short stories. More broadly, however, fiction encompasses imaginary narratives expressed in any medium, including not just writings but also live theatrical performances, films, television programs, radio dramas, comics, role-playing games, and video games. Definition Typically, the fictionality of a work is publicly marketed and so the audience expects the work to deviate in some ways from the real world rather than presenting, for instance, only factually accurate portrayals or characters who are actual people. Because fiction is generally understood to not fully adhere to the real world, the themes and context of ...
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Fictional Dragons
This is a list of dragons in popular culture. Dragons in some form are nearly universal across cultures and as such have become a staple of modern popular culture, especially in the fantasy genre. Dragons in fiction This list of dragons in fiction is a collection of various notable draconic characters that appear in various works of fiction. It is limited to well-referenced examples of dragons in literature, comics, film, television, animation and video games. Dragons in literature Western literature tends either to affirm or pointedly subvert the traditional portrait of dragons from Western myth and folklore, as evil and greedy. ;Author name legend Dragons in comics Dragons appear in various manga and american comics, in the form of comic books, comic strips and webcomics. Dragons in film Dragons have been portrayed in film and television in many different forms. They may terrorize human towns, or save human lives, even taking the role of passionate protectors. ...
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Fables
Fable is a literary genre: a succinct fictional story, in prose or verse, that features animals, legendary creatures, plants, inanimate objects, or forces of nature that are anthropomorphized, and that illustrates or leads to a particular moral A moral (from Latin ''morālis'') is a message that is conveyed or a lesson to be learned from a story or event. The moral may be left to the hearer, reader, or viewer to determine for themselves, or may be explicitly encapsulated in a maxim. A ... lesson (a "moral"), which may at the end be added explicitly as a concise maxim (philosophy), maxim or saying. A fable differs from a parable in that the latter ''excludes'' animals, plants, inanimate objects, and forces of nature as actors that assume speech or other powers of humankind. Conversely, an animal tale specifically includes talking animals as characters. Usage has not always been so clearly distinguished. In the King James Version of the New Testament, "" ("''mythos''") was r ...
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Fiction About Ageing
Fiction is any creative work, chiefly any narrative work, portraying individuals, events, or places that are imaginary, or in ways that are imaginary. Fictional portrayals are thus inconsistent with history, fact, or plausibility. In a traditional narrow sense, "fiction" refers to written narratives in prose often referring specifically to novels, novellas, and short stories. More broadly, however, fiction encompasses imaginary narratives expressed in any medium, including not just writings but also live theatrical performances, films, television programs, radio dramas, comics, role-playing games, and video games. Definition Typically, the fictionality of a work is publicly marketed and so the audience expects the work to deviate in some ways from the real world rather than presenting, for instance, only factually accurate portrayals or characters who are actual people. Because fiction is generally understood to not fully adhere to the real world, the themes and context of ...
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Life Extension Advocacy Foundation
The Lifespan Extension Advocacy Foundation (LEAF) is a non-profit organization with mission to support fundamental research on the main mechanisms of aging and age-related diseases and educate the public on the possibility of bringing aging under medical control in order to prevent, postpone and cure age-related diseases. It was founded in 2014 and is based in New York City, New York, USA. Its activities include a news outlet covering aging research, an annual scientific conference on aging in New York City, and the nonprofit crowdfunding platform ''Lifespan.io''. As of 2020, the platform has hosted eight successful campaigns, including three research projects by SENS Research Foundation. News outlet LEAF established its news outlet in 2016 with the goal of educating the public on the progress in aging and longevity research. As of 2020, it contains over 900 news articles, including over 90 interviews with aging and rejuvenation researchers, such as Aubrey de Grey, Judith Camp ...
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CGP Grey
CGP Grey is an American-Irish educational YouTuber, podcaster, and live streamer who creates short explanatory videos on subjects including politics, geography, economics, sociology, history, and culture. In addition to video production, Grey is known for creating and hosting the podcasts ''Hello Internet'' with Brady Haran and ''Cortex'' with Myke Hurley. Early life Grey grew up in the Long Island suburbs of New York City. He went to college in upstate New York, earning two degrees: one in physics and another in sociology. When Grey was a child, his father applied for Irish citizenship on his behalf, and he gained dual American–Irish citizenship. Grey's Irish citizenship allowed him to move to the European Union and he moved to London. Grey attended a masters program in economics in London, and he continues to live in the city. Grey became a physics teacher while in London. Videos Grey's primary YouTube channel, ''CGP Grey'', predominantly features explanatory video ...
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