From: Reason (reason@exratio.com)
Date: Tue Jul 03 2001 - 12:03:13 MDT
> More profound than the medical breakthroughs are the detailed arguments
> against these breakthroughs! The counter-arguments are scare, and even
> suggest that longevity will give another Hitler a better chance
> to take over
> the world. They suggest that it would be horrible if money could buy
> longevity, or if the rich got healthy before the poor. There is an entire
> doomsday scenario based on the horrors of longer life. It is hard to
> imagine that these views *against* health and longevity even exist. This
> article fairly presents opposing viewpoints, and the depth and strength of
> those viewpoints is profoundly disturbing.
The parallels there again with AIDS circa 1980. Loud and efficient activism
and advocacy for life extension directed towards the man in the street are
most definately missing from the current mix; there are a lot of good
organisations out there, but they're mostly preaching to the choir by this
stage.
It is not unreasonable to assume that Western governments could quite
cheerfully retard antiaging breakthroughs by a couple of decades in response
to luddite and religious pressure groups. This has happened for technologies
of reproduction and numerous drugs. If this comes to pass, we will all die
of old age.
Ergo, this would seem to be one of the more important items on our
collective to do list -- to say the least.
Reason
http://www.exratio.com/
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