Imagine for a moment that you never had to worry about death at all. Do you think it would change how you lived your life? This question may soon have more relevance than you think. Certain scientist and philosophers believe that true immortality is achievable within the first few decades past the 21st century. However, even the more conservative scientists acknowledge that life extension is far more likely. Around the globe research is being done in the ever-progressing quest to find the proverbial "fountain of youth". After years of research one researcher believes he may finally have the answer.
Meet Aubrey de Grey, a researcher who believes that his plan for ending aging may be able to be implemented within a few decades, in his book Ending Aging Aubrey talks about how ending aging and debilitation in humans is not only feasible but will be able to be implemented shortly. His proposal is to use what he calls "regenerative medicine" to cause the body to be in a constantly youthful state.
Quite honestly this scares me. The fear and inevitability of death is one of the constant motivators of human existence. Without that to subconsciously guide us I fear for our existence as a species. Aside from speculative concerns there is the realistic concern that if immortality were to be made available to us at large over population would become even more of a problem than it is now. Additionally, if the medicine was not widely available it wold create a ruling upper class to rule society that would simply never die. Thereby creating a class seperation that would be almost impossible to overcome. On a whole I believe immortality is bad for the human race as a whole because it would represent the virtual end to freedom working in our world and , in my own humble opinion, it would lead to the downfall of the human race as we know it.
deGrey, Aubrey. "SENS FOUNDATION Mission" Sens Foundation. Web. 6 Sep 2010.
Aside from the extreme of ending aging all together, what would happen if people simply began to live longer? What if 200 became the average age of death? While obtaining the secrets to immortality may happen in the far off future, the increasing average age of death is a reality. The average life expectancy has gone from 30 in medieval times, to 67.5 in modern times, (world average).
ReplyDeletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_expectancy
I don't like the thought of immortality either. I look forward to growing as an individual, living my life in my career, retiring and getting old and eventually living life in eternity. As a christian, i believe that there better life off from earth and don't want to live forever. I think it will create chaos and so many problems. Our economy is so messed up as it is now, why create a population problem to further these economic issues?
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