Dear Future Centenarian,
Two weeks ago, we discussed the
subject of common objections to extreme life extension. Let’s revisit a few in
this issue with short simple responses. We’ll start
with:
Why would anyone
want to live forever?
"Forever" is a long
time, and we're not suggesting that. Most people who enjoy life want more of it.
Even most of those who claim they don't want to live longer than "natural" will
go to the ends of the earth to cure themselves of cancer, heart disease and
injuries when they get stricken. Modern drugs, surgical techniques and
diagnostic tools are life extension technologies that few
refuse.
Most who
welcome death suffer from the ravages of aging that usually make life miserable
toward the end of our lives. But we aim to avoid or reverse the negative side
effects of aging. As long as your life is fulfilling,
now or in the future, why would you want it to end?
Wouldn’t stopping
aging simply extend my decrepit frail years?
Not at all.
Our goals are keeping the young youthful and reversing the damage aging does to
you if you are already affected by the ravages of aging. No one is interested in
spending endless years in a nursing home. Age reversal will eventually mean
transforming the elderly to a healthy youthful state. We aim to reset our or
biological clocks while our chronological clocks keep
ticking.
Shouldn't we
spend our resources feeding the hungry, rather than keep people alive
longer?
A knowledgeable
productive human being is the ultimate resource. The elderly are the most
knowledgeable people we have. By making them productive for extra years, many of
those resources can be channeled to solving problems such as hunger. Besides,
our planet can accommodate over 12 billion people before resources are taxed.
This doesn't even account for future technologies such as seabed farming, mining
asteroids, clean energy-saving technologies, mile high buildings (Frank Lloyd
Wright designed one in 1956 that could have housed all of downtown Chicago. Imagine the
views!), enhanced food production, nanotechnology and genetic
engineering.
What's more, the
exponential growth of information technology will affect our prosperity as well.
The World Bank
has reported, for example, that poverty in Asia has been
cut in half over the past decade due to information technologies and that at
current rates it will be cut by another 90 percent over the next decade. That
phenomenon will spread around the globe.
How
can you expect to solve something as complex as aging, when we can't even cure
cancer?
For a couple of
reasons. First, it may not be necessary to solve something as complex as aging
in the near future. Fixing the damage aging causes may not be nearly as hard.
That may be all we have to do to build a “bridge” between today and the day we
can enjoy the benefits of technologies that control the aging process.
Second, we already have
some pretty compelling clues as to what causes aging. Enough in fact, to put our
version of a biological "Manhattan Project" to work right now. We even know how
to extend average life spans by up to 20 years in many people using current low
tech lifestyle modifications. Unraveling the aging mystery was an unrealistic
project just a few years ago, but recent giant technology and computational
leaps give us the tools to make it a reality. For example, some biological
problems used to take years to solve, now they take about 15 seconds. These
tools will only get better faster with exponential growth of knowledge and
technology.
I’ll have a few more to
share with you in the next issue. Meanwhile, keep your eye on the positive side
of the pie.
Long Life,
David A.
Kekich
Maximum Life
Foundation
714-641-0700/Fax
714-464-4135
kekich@maxlife.org
www.MaxLife.org
"Where Biotech, Infotech and
Nanotech
Meet to Reverse Aging by
2029"