In a few weeks, I'll be turning 29. I realize that 29 is fairly young
even by today's standards. But nevertheless, as someone admittedly
obsessed with health and life extension, I've begun to increasingly
think about aging as both a biological and sociological phenomena.
More specifically, I've become increasingly attuned to the age-whipped
majority who seem to decline in both physical and mental vigour with
each year past 30. This might be a harsh statement, and it's definitely
a culturally biased overgeneralization, but I still feel that it's
largely accurate. And so I've become motivated, partly by fear, to ponder the challenges of
ageless thinking.
The biggest concern for me--right now, anyway--isn't maintaining my
body in a youthful state. While this is definitely a concern, I feel
able to adequately take steps in this direction, and mainstream society
largely facilitates and encourages this behavior with widespread access
to information
and products aimed at youth restoration and maintenance. While many of
these products are dubious, and others have only minor effects, I
believe in the bridge hypothesis expounded by
Ray Kurzweil,
Aubrey de Grey
and others: Each generation of life-extending interventions need only
keep me alive until the subsequent generation in order for me to have
an effectively indefinite lifespan. And given that I'm 29 and as far as
I know in good health, I believe that, barring an unfortunate accident,
there is a good chance for me to stay biologically youthful for a long
period of time. (And yes, as a backup plan I am pursuing cryonics.)
But physiological challenges aren't the only challenges of life
extension. While our culture encourages physiological youth extension,
it provides little to foster ageless thinking. Rather, prevailing
attitudes towards life progression outline a plan that largely consists
of:
- Be young and explore.
- Grow up and focus.
- "Settle down" and take on family responsibilities.
- Retire and spend your declining years soaking the sun.
- Die.
And here is where the big problem lies. Because ultimately, aging is as
much a psychological and sociological phenomena as it is a biological
phenomena. This is particularly true as we develop increasingly more
powerful antiaging interventions, because people's attitudes towards
such interventions will have a direct effect on their physiological
health.
And so I find myself looking for role models in weird places. I look to
people such as Madonna who have managed to stay youthful (and, might I
add, quite hot) in both body and mind, in the face of outside
criticism. I've also started evaluating my social circle and
identifying the people who appear to have detached themselves from
society's depressing default life ladder on which living ends in your
mid-30s, replaced by a slow march to the grave.
A good friend of mine, for example, is in his early 40s but is one of
the youngest people I know. A bachelor, he works three days a week in
health care, travels several months of the year, makes friends
everywhere, dates constantly (and meets many interesting women who
subsequently become friends), engages himself creatively with music,
hosts great parties and is an all-around optimistic, open-minded guy.
I look at my friend's life and wonder how he's done it while so many
others his age are burnt-out husks of human beings who plod through
life rather than take it by the horns. I don't have the answers, but I
know that there's a good chance they'll be strongly counter-cultural.
And while I admittedly like being a ***-disturber and blazing my own
trail, I sometimes wish there were wider encouragement for alternative
lifestyles, ways of thinking, and ways of getting chronologically older
without getting psychologically stultified.