Reasonable Proposals
from the life-and-death-matters dept.
Zarathustra2101 writes "The current issue of Reason magazine features an article entitled Forever Young: The New Scientific Search for Immortality by Ronald Bailey. The author paraphrases Dylan Thomas thus: 'The defining political conflict of the 21st century will be the battle over life and death. On one side stand the partisans of mortality, who counsel humanity to quietly accept our morbid fate and go gentle into that good night. On the other is the party of life, who rage against the dying of the light and yearn to extend the enjoyment of healthy life to as many as possible for as long as possible.'"
"While most of the article is devoted to describing the mechanics of aging and discussing the various extant and proposed treatments involving diet, traditional medicine and gene therapy, Bailey also gives a nod to nanotechnology. Quoting Ralph Merkle: 'Nanotechnology will let us build fleets of computer-controlled molecular tools much smaller than a human cell and with the accuracy and precision of drug molecules. These machines could remove obstructions in the circulatory system, kill cancer cells or take over the function of subcellular organelles.'"
"Also discussed is a plan by Robert Freitas to 'replace your entire circulatory system with a sapphire vasculoid weighing two kilograms. No heart, no blood — just a system of nanotech machines that would ferry oxygen, carbon dioxide, nutrients, and immune protective machines throughout your body, all encased in nearly unbreakable sapphire that would line your old-fashioned veins and arteries. Since 80 percent of what kills most people can be traced to the circulatory system — heart attacks, strokes, wounding, metastasizing cancer — such a vasculoid would dramatically increase one?s life span. Freitas thinks the first models will be available in 40 years.'"
"Finally, nanotech's role in cryonics is acknowledged, and Bailey sums up the cryo-advocates' position in this way: 'Cryonicists divide the world into two groups, those who are experimenting with cryonics by being frozen vs. those who just die and are buried. Which would you rather be in, they ask: the control group or the experimental group?'"
August 22nd, 2002 at 6:15 AM
Lead, Follow, or Die
I found an interesting point via the bit about folks refusing to make way for the next generation:
Francis Fukuyama warns in his new book Our Posthuman Future that young geezers will "refuse to get out of the way; not just of their children, but their grandchildren and great grandchildren."
Our spiecies advances by handing down knowledge from one generation to the next. But lots gets lost in this process. We continue to repeat history; experience is all too often the best teacher (and often much more interesting and fun). Though immortality would side step this sort of thing, there may also be disadvantages in this regard (aside from the increased education, enculturation neccessary for the offspring we do generate).
That is, though lacking the first hand knowledge, and context, that comes through experience, young bucks have a fresh perspective on the world, its problems, challenges. I wonder what affect immortatlity will have on creativity, innovation, and I wonder how we might address this sort of thing – creativity gene thearpy
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August 26th, 2002 at 9:53 AM
Rejuventating brains
In our newly rejuvenated brains will hard-won experience and restraint dissolve in a haze of adolescent hormones? I think that some of what we call maturity is partly due to affects of age on the brain. If we erase those effects with nano, will people become impulsive and obsessive with fast cars and such? We know that body-builder's personalities can be affected by testosterone and other muscle building steroids.
August 28th, 2002 at 5:16 PM
Re:Rejuventating brains
You might enjoy the Nathaniel Hawthorne short story, Dr. Heidegger's Experiment. It deals with exactly this question, and concludes that if drinking from the Fountain of Youth makes one as stupid as one was the first time around, maybe it's better to stay old. That said, I'd go for rejuvenation no matter how stupid it made me act.