"The Fable of the Dragon-Tyrant" is a 2005 short story about

ageing Ageing ( BE) or aging ( AE) is the process of becoming older. The term refers mainly to humans, many other animals, and fungi, whereas for example, bacteria, perennial plants and some simple animals are potentially biologically immortal. In ...

and

death Death is the irreversible cessation of all biological functions that sustain an organism. For organisms with a brain, death can also be defined as the irreversible cessation of functioning of the whole brain, including brainstem, and brain ...

by the Swedish philosopher

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 rev ...

. 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 Pro-aging trance, also known as pro-aging edifice, is a term coined by British author and biomedical gerontologist Aubrey de Grey to describe the broadly positive and fatalistic attitude toward aging in society. Overview According to de Grey, ...

Publication history

The story has been published in ''

Philosophy Now ''Philosophy Now'' is a bimonthly philosophy magazine sold from news-stands and book stores in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, and Canada; it is also available on digital devices, and online. It aims to appeal to the wider public, ...

'', and the ''

Journal of Medical Ethics The ''Journal of Medical Ethics'' is a monthly peer-reviewed academic journal covering the field of bioethics that was established in 1975. According to the ''Journal Citation Reports'', the journal has a 2019 impact factor of 2.021, ranking it fou ...

''. It has been translated into multiple languages, including Chinese, Czech, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Polish, Russian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian and Spanish.

In popular culture

The YouTuber

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 ...

produced an animated adaptation in 2018; it was highly praised by the

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 und ...

References

External links

The Fable of the Dragon-Tyrant
* by

Fiction about ageing Fables Fictional dragons Fictional personifications of death Parables Fiction about monarchy Philosophical fiction Transhumanism in fiction Short stories adapted into films Works adapted into animated films {{2000s-story-stub