I overheard a coworker yesterday mention something about a TV program detailing upcoming life extension technologies (which I missed since I don’t watch TV). As a Singulitarian and Post-humanist myself, I find this topic more than fascinating.
What would you do if you could live forever? Or, at the very least, live for a thousand years. Hell, even two hundred?
Let me add to that: what if you could be young for all those years. It isn’t hard to realize that the entire structure of human society would undergo what I feel would be the largest paradigm shift in human history.
Sounds like science fiction, yes? I wouldn’t be so sure. With stem cell technology (if the close-minded fundamentalists in our government can get over themselves) we have the power to regrow our own organs, tissues, etc. I’m not talking a transplant from someone else; I’m talking about organs that are 100% compatible with each person’s unique physiology.
There are experimental nanotechnologies that can target cancerous cells while ignoring everything else, effectively negating the need for radiation based therapies (and, more importantly, the side effects of such therapies). Not only that, but by keeping our bodies young by replacing aging parts, we remove another vector for cancerous cells to form.
Granted, the key word here is experimental. Many of these technologies will not be realized for many years. But they will be within my lifetime.
How much would you pay to live an extra hundred years? A thousand? Indefinitely? Will we have to introduce a population control laws (almost certainly, I think)? Maybe not; who’s to say that these new technologies can’t be applied to birth control?
With such a limited (relatively speaking in the grand scheme of the universe) lifespan, I feel as though I’m rushed to do all the things I’d like to do before I die. Most of them I’d like to do while still young. I don’t want to get Alzheimers, I don’t want to get cancer. I don’t want to die of “old age”. I do want to live forever; or at least, for a very long time.
The older I get the shorter the years seem to last. We have the means to control our destiny; why not use them?
-Russ
PS: Here is a book all about the Singularity, life extension, and tons of really super neat technology. Highly recommended (and it will be reviewed here soon).
