Longevity food for thought
An article about perspectives
Biological life, as we know it now, is bound to one dimension of time and three dimensions of space.
On the time axis, life has a beginning, often associated with the moment the oocyte is fertilized by the sperm. It has an ending, widely accepted as (whole-)brain death, i.e., the moment all brain functions cease in a definitive fashion.
On the three space axes, life evolved from the micro- to the macroscale, creating bigger and bigger structures. The reactions that happen within the physical boundaries of an organism, the input and output of interacting with the environment, lead to wear-out, aging, and eventual death, thus indirectly establishing how long on the time axis the organism can exist.
(Of course, we don’t talk about existence on a spiritual level; not yet.)
As living organisms, we are constantly subjected to countless events, feelings, and thoughts, in between our beginning and ending. Some are stored in your brain, packed up as childhood memories, teenage drama, dreadful existential crises, happy days with friends… it is so exciting to think about how many things one has experienced until the present moment, regardless of age. How many things left to experience until the end? That in itself is unknown. But what if we could consciously make the choice to raise that number of things, if we wanted to, by increasing the quality (and maybe quantity) of time we have left?
Imagine a scenario in which this is possible.
Imagine you are given the chance to prolong your *health*span and potentially lifespan, in a safe, guaranteed manner. (This could be under the form of a pill, treatment, therapy, or whatever else. Let’s say a pill, for simplicity of imagination.) Would you take this chance?
This is a purely conceptual question – no details on when this event would happen (could be 2 years, 20 years, or 50 years from now), and in which life stage and state you would be, when given this chance (early- or late-life, decently healthy or with progressing aging-diseases). We can’t guarantee whether World War 3 had already happened by then, if Artificial General Intelligence took over, or if the world flourished and prospered beyond what one could imagine.
Your agreement however guarantees one outcome: that during the 10 years following the pill ingestion, your health stay the same, or it will improve. Under which conditions would you say “yes, I want to prolong my healthspan”? Even more importantly, under which conditions would you say “no”?
Depending on your age, culture, life goals and values, you might react radically differently to the thought and this particular question. (I don’t own surprising or definitive statistics on any group’s preference for one response or the other. However, this piece of writing aims to shed light on why one might instantly say yes, or why another might instinctively say no.)
One of the most popular follow-up questions to the one above is, “would my friends and family members also be able to live longer, or is it just me?”. A common idea is that such pills are 1) made by, and available to, the rich individuals, and 2) they are precursors to immortality.
While the idea of an unequal / unavailable longevity treatment was a fear populating people’s minds, it should be often seen as not founded. Additionally, while tons of technologies started off as a “luxury for the wealthy”, the initial mindblowing price was needed before reaching an eventual affordable cost of the new given technology. The most popular example in this regard are mobile phones. At the time of their introduction on the market, mobile phones would be the bulkiest, most expensive devices one would invest their money into. Yet, their devaluation on the market could not be reached without this (now seemingly irrational) investment from the wealthy.
(There are countless other concerns that Alex Colville answers to in a most beautiful manner, in an interview with Mercury News. Check it out.)
Nevertheless, it is important to ask the question, why would one even desire to take the pill in the first place?
You might have a neutral perspective over life. If you believe that “life is meant to be experienced”, with all its positive and negative elements, dark and bright side of things – and in the end, if “you are meant to die” – why would you be biased towards taking the pill?
You could continue doing what you were doing
A comfortable job, cozy house and loving family provide all the warmth one might need. If you are one of the lucky individuals to have achieved that by the age at which you are offered this healthspan-promoting treatment, congrats! You might want to enjoy life for longer as it is.
In your life’s timeframe (from birth until now), you had uncountable many “firsts”, and unknowingly many “lasts”. If there are close-to-infinite numbers of things one can do (ranging from washing the dishes to traveling to a black hole), and “n” is the number of things you’ve tried at least once until now, there is still an almost-infinity of things to be done out there. Now, I cannot have a clue about how you perceive death. However, one way to view it is, death is a button that once pressed, turns the status of all memories to “last” (last time you did X thing).
On the flipside, jobs can be less than exciting. Why would you be a “slave of this economy”? Is longevity a governmental scheme that keeps you hooked in the system for longer without giving you more pleasure or rewards?
Expand yourself and the world
Education is not “for the young”. And being an amateur (i.e., “a person who takes part in an activity for pleasure, not as a job”) is cool.
In fact, I believe in the power of interdisciplinarity for the creation of synergy and development. Before making my way into biology, I was studying math and computer science; before that, I pursued lots of courses in arts. Yet, even before my artsy self arose, my fascination was completely aimed at the stars – if it wasn’t for my inability to profoundly grasp physics, there is no doubt I would have become an astrophysicist.
(Reading this article you might have asked yourself if I am biased towards one of these points I am listing here. In fact, I am. I am biased towards helping make the existence of such a pill (as mentioned above) a reality, and delving into astrophysics as soon as that is done.)
Retire and do something you like
Knowing you have a second chance to relive something – one more walk in the woods and one more trip to the Carribean – you might take the time you have left very personally. Travel and exploration could be at the top of your list.
Things like…
Getting back to physical activity; regaining your health allows you one more pushup (and one more pushup feeds back into the loop, to preserve your health!)
Creating art as a form of self-expression; do you think the art you create now would be influenced by the decision of havig taken the extra 10 healthy years?
Reading those fantasy books you have been waiting to read; psychologically, the healthspan extension might affect the way you perceive old and new plots
Reasons to say “no” to such a healthspan (and potentially lifespan) increasing treatment:
Beliefs and concerns about the future
Culturally and religiously, the course of life is perceived by many as natural, with no reason to be disturbed. Philosophically, existential nihilism is an example of belief stating that the meaning of life arises from its finitude.
Even if none of the above applies to you, the future might look scary. Why live if the world is already going to hell? Climate change is happening, though people have been working on it, and living longer would (arguably) not worsen this problem. Similarly, the current risk of overpopulation is more of a myth (fertility rates are going down). World War 3 is crawling towards us, aliens may find us, … the list goes on.
Concerns about the safety of the treatment and implications of its availability
One could be afraid that the company developing and selling such a treatment would be a toy of the government, a Big Brother, and/or a socio-economical danger in disguise. In itself, the pill proposed could be doubted and treated as a a scientific fallacy, at least as much as mRNA COVID-19 vaccines were – and the latter is estimated to saved 14.4 million lives in the course of one year. While these arguments can be combated by bringing into discussion ethical and regulatory oversights, arguments on such matters are hard to be held if one or both of the parties are not open to reconsidering their own beliefs and/or understanding the other’s concerns and proofs.
Lastly, there are arguments that can serve as both “pros” and “cons” of preserving your health and living for longer:
Scientific and technological advancements
If such a healthspan-extending treatment was available, imagine the other biological “miracles” one could see with their own eyes, from then on. With countless other technologies on the rise, you could hope to live to see almost anything. This can also apply to any other thing: if you are curious by nature and wonder how the future is like, this could be a chance to even explore it yourself.
If you have technophobia, this may however not be suited for you.
Seeing others choose to live longer, too (or not)
Depending on the attitude of your loved ones have towards this healthspan treatment, you might be influenced to respond in one way or the other. One question is, how many people around you have to choose to live longer, before you decide you want to join them? Or, vice versa, how many people do you need to see choose to die before you reconsider your decision to prolong your life- and healthspan?
Our perception of what do life and death represent might change
This might be disorienting. I can’t tell you how our perceptions of what life and death mean will change (but this would be a nice thought experiment to go through in another article).
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This writing piece is not an attempt to persuade or change one’s views. It is an exercise of imagination that might allow you to understand how other people think and why – to them – longevity might be a nurturing, literally once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to become new people, or a true nightmare. Either way, we need to understand each other.
Acknowledgement: all images were made using Canva.
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