The strange - and far too large - world of people who believe in all-powerful "elites," conspiracies, suppression of new technologies, and carry a delightful range of other cultural baggage seems to have stumbled over the healthy life extension community of late. So, of course, it was only a matter of time before someone was up there misinterpreting us to suit whatever paid sermon is presently underway.

The development of successful life-extension technologies will be a reality within 30 years, but the application of such stunning advances will be tightly restricted by a ruling elite, and eventually may be used as a justification to completely wipe out humanity, according to some of the scientific community’s leading pioneers.

A recent article carried by the Methuselah Foundation, an organization that advocates the development of life extension and nanomachinery technology, concludes that life-extension technology and “(greatly) augmenting our biology with nanomachinery” will have arrived by the 2030’s, but that “The new bio- and nanotechnologies of the 2040s will be massive overkill for the “simple” task of repairing the damage of aging.”

The report concludes that the greatest obstacle in the field is not the development but the application of such technology, suggesting that living for hundreds of years is inevitable only for the wealthy elite.

Pressure groups pushing for more widespread funding of life-extension technology research seem to be constantly frustrated by the fact that major global scientific institutions seek to contain progress within very selective parameters and are very reticent to encourage more open access to the field.

Um, no. Not according to "the scientific community’s leading pioneers." According to you, guy writing at TruthNews, picking over content for pieces to support the pre-fabricated conclusion and tout a film project.

But really, how silly is all this? Start out by presenting Fight Aging! as an "organization" that issues "reports" and build up to fantastical cold war-styled sci-fi predictions of new overlords and oppressed masses. Along the way, blame the present lack of research infrastructure for longevity medicine on the ever-present "elites," and generally otherwise see planning and hidden controllers where there are none. It's all very melodramatic, and no doubt helps sell products to people who get a kick out of that memetic space.

I wouldn't normally comment on this sort of thing, but those are my words up there being cut up for use as stage props.

So I'll say this, for what it's worth: stop being foolish. Get a grip. Take off the blinders. I'm just a person, Fight Aging! is just a blog. The world is made of people, and people talk and get things done. There are no shadowy organizations, no nefarious controlling "elites," no plans for the future that are any different in nature than the plans you make for your own life and the organizations you support. Want a say in the future? Stand up and wave your arms, speak up, accomplish tasks. It's easy - I'm doing it, and there's nothing special about me.

As I've said before, there are plenty of folk out there who'd like to be the nefarious "elites." The disreputable types who infest the political arena spring to mind, fighting one another for more power to line their own nests. But they're people too; just as dumb, smart, lucky, hardworking, lazy and unfortunate as the rest of us. The same goes for all those people in the world who happen to have more power and influence than you do right at this moment in time. These folk aren't magical, and nor are they really any different from the rest of us. They are no less uncertain, fallible, confused, impotent and ignorant. A belief in magically efficient organizations and secret controllers of society is a comfort myth for some people, but that's all it is.

Make no mistake, there are factions in our centralized, over-regulated, over-governed societies that aspire to call themselves "elites," enriching themselves at cost to the rest of us, parasites warring to leverage the mechanisms of the state to force their agendas. But you'll note that these "elites" - whomever you might think they are - have no greater access to medical technologies than any average fellow who takes care of his finances. This is the way the world actually works: new technologies move from dream to expensive, clunky reality to cheap and effective product in a fraction of a lifetime. So it was - and continues to be - for heart surgery, so it will be for gene therapy, and so it will be for the first true longevity therapies capable of repairing age-related cellular and biomolecular damage.

I've done my share of talking about the dangers of centralization of power in the past. That's pragmatism and reality, not conspiracy theories. There are fallible human beings out there trying their best to live off your hard work, reduce your freedoms, and otherwise make your life shorter and more miserable. Some of them are even doing it intentionally - access to power corrupts at all levels, from the power of possessing a pretty face to the power to direct taxed dollars. But corruption doesn't turn people into competent, shadowy elites. It just makes them reprehensible.

There are very definitely battles to be fought: against centralized power; against the destruction of medicine through socialism and regulation; to persuade and fund into existence a vast research culture for longevity science; to raise popular support and understanding for healthy life extension; to dispense with harmful myths and beliefs about the way the world works. But fight the right battles, not the dumb, made-up, unreal battles.

Posted by Reason at October 10, 2007 9:24 PM | TrackBack (0)