Comments on: Living Forever: Is It Really Worth It?

By: Peter

Peter — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 23:42:16 +0000

The idea of overpopulation is always droned out when we talk about curing aging. Shooting the argument down is like shooting ducks in a bucket. This even if we accept the assumption of a population explosion despite the fact that an increasing number of countries are showing negative population growth. For one thing, there is a strong negative correlation between longevity and birthrate when you look at different countries. For another, if a cure for aging can also be applied to sperm and ova, then people may live to 200 and have their 2 kids at 100 instead of living to 60 and having their 2 kids at 30. That way, the earth’s population would increase 0.3 times as fast. For another, people may not race into having children because their biological clock is ticking. For another, having longer careers will give individuals more time to make the advances that will allow us to sustain larger populations.

> Many people see the point of life as having children, and could imagine life as worthless and hollow in hindsight should they not have had their children.

Are we then required to grow old because some people are unable to find fulfillment in life? There are some people who cannot have children for various reasons. They have to find other means of fulfillment.

My comment to all these “bioethicists” is that if you do not like the new technology then do not take advantage of it.

Ron> Are we ready to pay such a price for boosting our human egos for a couple more years of old life?

How is a cure for aging going to increase OLD life? Why do so many critics of curing aging see curing aging as extending OLD life? Can the logical contradiction be any more obvious?

By: Thomas

Thomas — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 23:02:24 +0000

I say, who the f#$% is anyone else to make my ‘ethical’ decisions for me about the length of my life? I sincerely doubt the vast majority of people on this planet will even avail themselves of the technology once it becomes available, so many of these arguments are moot. Frankly, I wish Thomas Jefferson was alive today – perhaps this country wouldn’t be so f#$&&$ up. Someone should hang around to bear witness to the follies of their day to future generations. Aging is the ultimate “terminal illness” to conquer – now death itself becomes a choice, not something unknowable yet inescapable. I look forward to the challenge of such.

By: Ron

Ron — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 17:50:21 +0000

Nice website! And good ethical-stance on the issue.

I call that life-extending drug the ultimate ego-inflating drug. That’s all it is. We might think that we improved control over our life expectancies but does that really change anything at all?

That change will ripple outwards and will come back at us in one form or another – no need to be biblical here, it’s simply a matter of tweaking variables (life expectancy, population size, etc) in a system (Earth) with a definite amount of resources.

What are these effects going to look like? Answer: Whatever they are, we can’t escape them since we form an integral part of this planet’s ecology.

Are we ready to pay such a price for boosting our human egos for a couple more years of old life?

By: old mouse

old mouse — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 15:21:52 +0000

humans, as a rule only spend 20 years in adolescence. Yet we spend 30 or more years in declining health and mental function. Shrinking the amount of time we spend in our dotage would be a good thing because people could continue to contribute by employment, creative works, and guidance at a much higher level and for a longer period of time than they can today.

I know that younger people complain a lot about how “old timers” get in the way of their desire for power and climbing the organizational hierarchy. Extended well-being will make this worse and that’s okay. Eliminating the normal, nonproductive method of rewarding people will drive the development of ways of rewarding people for doing what they’re good at without stopping them from doing it.

In the “flying car” future, maybe one solution to people living forever is that life extended people must move off planet. While it will cause a brain drain. People with experience are exactly the folks you want starting up new centers of human existence.

anyway, I’m not going to worry about it because it probably won’t happen in my lifetime.