In my wrap-up of transhuman stories and trends of 2009, I noted that we have been seeing more and more coverage and discussion of radical human longevity and the defeat of aging. The premier voice for this concept has long been Aubrey de Grey, who is a well-known figure within the transhumanist/H+ community and is increasingly boosting his profile among the mainstream media, as well. Late last year de Grey appeared with Sanjay Gupta to discuss radical longevity, and today Good.is (who have brought us the excellent series “Singularity 101” with Michael Anissimov and Roko Mijic) posted their interview with Dr. de Grey, where they ask him some basic questions about the ramifications of radical longevity and human immortality.
The interviewer seems to hold the very common view that death is a good thing – that people would get bored of living if they go on for hundreds of years – a concept with which de Grey strongly disagrees:
G: I know you’ve heard this question before, but wouldn’t living for hundreds of years get a little boring?
AD: Yeah, right. Wouldn’t it be so terribly boring not getting Alzheimer’s? At least you had the sense to be embarrassed at even asking the question.
G: I didn’t mean to suggest that the maladies of old age are what keep life exciting. But it does seem like we’re propelled through life by milestones like moving out, marriage, having children, buying a house, and retiring. Isn’t it possible that life becomes a little desultory without this normal rhythm?
AD: I don’t think so. We have been progressively shifting to doing things like that multiple times in our lives rather than only once, and that shift will merely continue. And it hasn’t made life desultory so far, so I see no reason why it should do so in the future.
Personally, it’s this “rhythm” of life that I find so constricting. Most people tend to embark on a career path while they’re young, and then work for most of their lives within that path until they retire. By that time, age and age-related illness often limit the activities they can pursue. If someone works their entire life as, say, an accountant, and then retires at 65 and decides they want to pursue medical school to become a doctor, guess what? Chances are that’s not going to happen. If that person had a healthy life span of even 200 years, this “second career” would be no problem, and in fact the person would be free to define their own “rhythm.” Transition to multiple different careers, have kids at 120, retire for 15 years and then re-enter the workplace, and so on.
Of course, de Grey claims he would pursue a much more humble activity if he had the time, giving a simple one word answer:
“Sleep.”
(Via the awesome Pop Transhumanism)