All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by
night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day
to find that it was vanity; but the dreamers of the day are
dangerous men, for they may act their dreams with open
eyes, to make it possible.
—T. E. Lawrence, The Seven Pillars of Wisdom
A greatly extended human life span will bring about many
changes in our society. It is wise to be prepared for these
changes by anticipating as many as we can. This post explores some some common possible negative consequences of life extension.
- If people lived a lot longer, we would have a severe population explosion. The birth rate would be much higher than the death rate and remain that way, owing to constantly improving life extension technology. This would lead to a food and energy shortage of terrible proportions.
There would be an increase in population only if people
reproduced at a higher rate than the reduced death rate. At
the present time in the United States, the birth rate is below
that required for replacement. Our birth rate is now lower
than during the Great Depression, and the rapid growth of
vocational opportunities for women is apt to keep it this way.
In addition, there is every reason to suppose that the future
populations of this and other nations will not be limited only
to the planet Earth.
The practicability of large space colonies, capable of holding many billions of persons, has been demonstrated with calculations based on present principles of engineering. It seems likely that such colonies will be a reality within the next fifty years. Energy from thermonuclear fusion and space solar satellites holds the key to adequate power for a much larger population than lives now on earth, and these generators, too, are possible using near-term technological principles. Most important, people’s lives will be extended in the productive part of life, not in the decrepit dependent part of life. Thus, most of the extended-life-span population will be
increasing wealth, rather than merely consuming it. As with
other food and energy crises throughout history, technological solutions can prevent disaster.
- Life extension will encourage selfishness.
Life extension encourages concern with oneself in much
the same way as any type of self-improvement (memory and
learning drugs, psychological self-exploration, or training for
a new job). Selfishness is a necessary part of life. There is no
guarantee that, now or in the future, individuals with an ex-
tended life span will show more wisdom in their actions than
those living the traditional three score and ten years.
- Widespread life extension will result in a large population
of old people who are set in their ways and hence become obstacles to new thinking. Our society will stagnate.
This scenario would be a serious problem if life extension
prolonged mainly the old-age part of life. However, life extension methods described on this site extend the vigorous productive part of life and can improve mental, as well as physical functions. Life extension causes people to live longer because their bodies and brains are better able to repair and prevent aging damage. When a person’s ability to cope with this damage reaches a minimal point, death becomes very likely. In life extension experiments on laboratory animals, the animals with extended life spans do not have prolonged periods of decline.
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