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),[1] who demands a tribute 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]

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

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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