From: Michael S. Lorrey (mlorrey@datamann.com)
Date: Thu Nov 30 2000 - 12:46:07 MST
Dear Mr. Irvine,
You say in your review of The Last Mortal Generation:
> True to the philosophy of materialism, the book's
> analysis centres upon the physiology of ageing and death ... little time is spent on the psychology of old age, the immense psychospiritual changes (the
> getting of wisdom?) that accompany old age and that may even be necessary to younger generations. Are we to believe that the reveries of old age,
> the processes of looking back, of advising, of learning from experiences, of learning from the various stages of the life cycle, of learning to accept and
> come to terms with death and its capacity to illuminate the meaning of life are to be dismissed as 'aspects of a disease' in the same way that Broderick
> dismisses the physical changes associated with the same?
This indicates that you have your own blinders on here. You seem to
assume that the wisdom acquired in old age is a consequence of the
individual slowly rotting away, and in coming to terms with one's
mortality, rather than as a consequence of the accumulation of one's
past experience actually LIVING life. While there is something to be
said for confronting one's mortality, the rot of old age does not result
in wisdom, its simply a pain, an impediment, and a source of suffering
that could and should be avoided. Humanists claim to seek to alleviate
suffering in this world, yet they refuse to admit that the greatest
amount of suffering is from old age. If you claim that wisdom results
from this suffering, then you cannot conversely claim that other sources
of suffering, like child abuse, scholastic, military, gender, religious,
and racial/ethnic hazing and discrimination, police torture and
imprisonment of criminals, are not all character building activities
that should also be accepted in our all too human world. By opposing
such suffering, you are thus opposed to creating greater wisdom in the
world.
As this reducto ad absurdum demonstrates, the logic of old age related
suffering producing wisdom is false, or else your whole worldview is
false. Wisdom comes from experience. Becoming practically immortal
should thus result in greater wisdom in the world.
Additionally, practical immortality is not total immortality. Even if
all diseases and old age are cured, unrepairable fatalities due to
accidents (particularly brain hemmorage or destruction) would result in
a life expectancy of approximately 4000 years, so there is still room
for one to come to terms with one's mortality, especially if one engages
in more risk filled activities.
Regards,
Michael S. Lorrey
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