New at Reason

Ronald Bailey parties with transhumanists and ponders eternal life.

Comments

Marcvs | July 24, 2007, 1:33pm | #

Arianna Huffington, eh? There's a visionary in transhumanist research.

Inkstained Wretch | July 24, 2007, 1:51pm | #

Dammit Ron you buried the lead! William Shatner is addressing a confab on transhumanism? Seriously?

What is his talk about? "How To Beat the Aging Process Through Toupees and Girdles"?

CEO Nwabudike Morgan | July 24, 2007, 2:13pm | #

I plan to live forever, of course, but barring that I'd settle for a couple thousand years. Even five hundred would be pretty nice.

jh | July 24, 2007, 2:24pm | #

You can extend your expected lifespan by 7 years or more right now by living healthier lives -- exercise daily, give up smoking, drink less or not at all ... but, sure, the federal government throwing billions of tax dollars at this is a better and more effective way to achieve this end :P

Scott Kurland | July 24, 2007, 2:33pm | #

""Between 1970 and 2000 increased longevity yielded a ‘gross' social value of $95 trillion, while the capitalized value of medical expenditures grew by $34 billion, leaving a net gain of $61 trillion." In other words, for every dollar spent on health care since 1970, Americans gained two dollars in benefits."

Billions and trillions are not the same....

SuperMike | July 24, 2007, 4:14pm | #

If wanting Vang Pao to live to a vigorous 200 so that he has enough time to free Laos makes me a transhumanist, then I guess that's what I am.

Franklin Harris | July 24, 2007, 6:06pm | #

What I want is seven MORE years, preferrably as a horny teenager.

I remember the constant horniness as being the thing that made being a teenager so not fun.

J Golden Rockwell | July 24, 2007, 6:58pm | #

Aresen: Just how much lovin' did you get as a pimply, geeky 13-year-old ?

george | July 24, 2007, 10:08pm | #

aresen
However, if we just got 7 more years of being old, I think I'd take a 'little black pill' first.

I am officially 'old'(65). I'm slowing down, getting arthritis, and need a colonoscopy every two years. No black pill for me; life is interesting, even if I wind up looking at it on a computer screen.

Ron Bailey | July 24, 2007, 10:27pm | #

SK: Thanks. The billions/trillions typo is fixed.

Mark Plus | July 24, 2007, 10:52pm | #

In the late 1970's/early 1980's, both Robert Anton Wilson and F.M. Esfandiary (.pdf), who later changed his name to FM-2030, predicted that we would have become "immortal" by now (in the 2000-2010 time frame). FM died in 2000, and Wilson died earlier this year.

Aresen | July 25, 2007, 12:04am | #

J Golden Rockwell

Good point. I was actually thinking of my first year university, not grade eight.

george

I had a friend die last year by coming off a horse and suffering severe head trauma. He went out doing what he loved - training young horses. He was eighty-nine years of age, but not "old" in my view.

OTOH, I have done volunteer work in an advanced alzhiemer's ward - where the patients had to be locked in so they wouldn't wander off. Some of them were in their sixties. That is "being old" in my view and was what I was referring to in my remark about the "little black pill."

Ramesh Raghuvanshi | July 27, 2007, 4:16am | #

For good health and longevity our ancient Hindu saga said long long ago== Reduce your food half, double drinking water, triple mental and physical exersises and increase joy in your life four time.
This saying I think most valuabe today also.

tomWright | July 29, 2007, 5:19pm | #

people may work smarter as they get older, but they also tend to innovate less.

Without the turnover death brings, younger folks will have fewer opportunities, if they even get born to begin with.

After all, if death stops, population control will become critical.

And if death stops, whither evolution?