"The Fable of the Dragon-Tyrant"
Short story by Nick Bostrom
Genre(s)Fable
Publication
Media typeOnline
Publication date2005

"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),[1] 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.[2]

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.[3] 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,[4] and the Journal of Medical Ethics.[5]

It has been translated into multiple languages, including Chinese, Czech, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Polish, Russian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian and Spanish.[6]

The YouTuber CGP Grey produced an animated adaptation in 2018;[7] it was highly praised by the Life Extension Advocacy Foundation.[8]

References

  1. ↑ In the 6th note at the bottom of the article, the dragon is used as an analogy for the process of senescence: "the dragon is bad; it destroys people. This is also the truth about human senescence."
  2. ↑ Manzocco, Roberto (2019). "Introduction: Gilgamesh Versus the Dragon-Tyrant". Transhumanism - Engineering the Human Condition: History, Philosophy and Current Status. Popular Science. Springer International Publishing. ISBN 978-3-030-04956-0.
  3. ↑ Evans, Benjamin Shane (2017). Beyond Transhumanism: The Dangers of Transhumanist Philosophies on Human and Nonhuman Beings (Master of Arts thesis). Iowa State University. doi:10.31274/etd-180810-4928. p. 48.
  4. ↑ Bostrom, Nick (2012-06-12). "The Fable of the Dragon-Tyrant". Philosophy Now. 89: 6–9.
  5. ↑ Bostrom, N. (2005-05-01). "The fable of the dragon tyrant". Journal of Medical Ethics. 31 (5): 273–277. doi:10.1136/jme.2004.009035. ISSN 0306-6800. PMC 1734155. PMID 15863685. S2CID 32739628.
  6. ↑ Bostrom, Nick. "The Fable of the Dragon-Tyrant". www.nickbostrom.com. Retrieved 2021-10-14.
  7. ↑ Greene, Tristan (2018-04-24). "To hell with aging: Watch this YouTube video about a dragon". TNW. Retrieved 2021-10-14.
  8. ↑ Bagalà, Nicola (2018-04-27). "CGP Grey: The Fable of the Dragon-Tyrant". Lifespan.io. Retrieved 2021-10-14.
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