Who Wants (you) to Live Forever?
I mentioned the anti-longevity movement, in passing a few days ago. Here is a good article looking in brief not just at some of the anti-ageing tech in development right now, but also including a very quick survey of some of the voices wanting you to die young.
However, anti-aging crusaders are coming up against an increasingly influential alliance of bioconservatives who want to restrict research seeking to “unnaturally” prolong life. Some of these individuals were influential in persuading President Bush in 2001 to restrict federal funding for embryonic stem cell research. They oppose the idea of life extension and anti-ageing research on ethical, moral and ecological grounds.
Leon Kass, the former head of Bush’s Council on Bioethics, insists that “the finitude of human life is a blessing for every human individual”. Bioethicist Daniel Callahan of the Garrison, New York-based Hastings Centre, agrees: “There is no known social good coming from the conquest of death.”
You’ll notice, of course, crossover with the anti-stem cell research crowd.
Edited to add: Also of note from the same site, we have “Are Modern Humans in Evolution’s Fast Lane?”
(via Disinfo.)
Basically, people who think that living forever would get sad and boring are saying “We don’t want to have it, so you can’t have it”. how immature.
But on the other hand, having people who could live, say, twice longer than everyone else (mostly rich people I guess) would indeed bring along a ton of problems. Some powerful people already don’t care about human life, imagine how they would care about non-prolonged human life…
Leon Kass – Enemy of the Future.
Let’s not forget the great Neo-Con philopsher Francis Fukuyama and his masterwork Our PostHuman Future.
meanwhile, I need to get me some Astragalus
[...] Recently, Grinding.be posted a response to a Daily Galaxy’s longevity articles’ counterpoint by Bioethicist Leon Kass, and the cultural barriers he’s creating to longevity. [...]
My response to the article and Kass in general.
I’d recommend reading Altered Carbon by Richard Morgan for one take on the “immortal” lifestyle. Seems more likely than Heinlein’s take on it.
Well this is less than helpful
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7754644.stm
Still, anti-oxidants always seemed too easy anyway