https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37163684 (123 comments)
Musk, Thiel, and their ilk are going to put us in Bug Jack Barron territory before the end of the decade, aren't they?
From this perspective, things look different. i.e. less sinister. A holy grail of biomedical genetics is the ability to create whole blood - white cells and all - from a patient's stem cells, as that would eliminate the need for blood transfusions as well as all problems related to any kind of incompatibility. Still seems to be a ways off, as blood generation is another one of those ridiculously complicated biological systems, and is also closely interwoven with the immune system (since pathogens tend to show up and spread via the bloodstream).
Now, maybe the easiest way to do this is with 'Dolly the Sheep' tactics, meaning wealthy people would create clones of themselves and then harvest blood and organs from those clones, as in at least one dystopian movie.
would you blame a parent for taking their kid somewhere that gave them a good education, fed them well, and paid you, for just a little bit of their excess life force? you gotta weigh the pros and cons together. one man’s college education is another man’s immortality. everyone wins, just, not everyone wins as much.
Yes. It's those compromises that dig into dignity.
And also why people get to only have "excess life force" selling as their route to "good education, food, and payment".