Live Forever? No, Thanks
I recently read the transcript of an interview where inventor Ray Kurzweil discusses birth, death, and the potential offered by non-biological thinking processes.
In simple English, we can potentially live forever with the help of biotechnology.
I didn't read the whole transcript, but here are my thoughts:
Human Beings may be able to live forever through biotechnology a few decades from now, but I'm not sure that's a good thing.
For one thing, there's the sociological problem of the Rich-Poor divide. Obviously, the rich will be better able to afford the technology that keeps them alive, but the poor will have to continue with the birth-death cycle. Since the rich will presumably stop reproducing after a while, poor populations (which are already booming) will grow at much faster rates than the rich. The rich will then become increasingly isolated in their attempts to "get away from the crowds". Add to this the obvious pressures on the poor and the dissatisfaction that may arise among the youth in poor populations and it's a wonderful recipe for revolution.
Secondly, I think there's a darn good reason why the population must be replaced on a continuous basis. It's the key to human progress. Children are always looking at the world in new ways. As we age, we tend to get fixed in our ways and want things to be done our way because "we've seen the other ways fail." Children have no such pre-conceived notions. They are constantly thinking up new things and new ways to use existing technology. Don't forget, it was the teenagers who first figured out the benefit of a "missed call" on the mobile phone.
I don't buy the argument that old people will soon think in new ways because biotechnology is keeping them alive. Not every one is a Tom Peters or a Rupert Murdoch, thinking productively and, more important, in fresh new ways, well into their seventies. Just because technology will prevent the degeneration of the brain does not mean it can reverse thousands of years of evolution in the way people think. The AVERAGE person will continue to think in somewhat fixed patterns and that can never be good for the progress of humankind.
posted by Deepak Morris @ 5:53 PM
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