Kevin Dewalt continues his series of posts looking at the common knee-jerk, poorly throught through reasons people give in support of aging to death, and not seeking to develop working rejuvenation medicine.

Bad Reasons to NOT Cure Aging 3 - Eternal Frailty:

Let's now dispense with the misconception so common that it has a name: the infamous Tithonus Error, the assumption that radically extending human lifespan equates to a state of prolonged misery of decades in nursing homes. (Tithonus is a figure from Greek mythology).

Aging IS ghastly. After only 15-20 years of optimal [adult] health, human beings begin a slow, steady decline that eventually leads to years or decades of suffering for them, their loved ones, and society. It is only natural that all of us would fear extending this period of misery and frailty.

Fortunately, this is not the future we are pursuing. By reversing aging we hope to keep all of us in a state of optimal health for eternity. Moreover, the possibility of extending the period of infirmity seems very, very unlikely because aging kills us as a result of accumulated damage. Unless we figure out a way to undo this damage, we probably won't survive much longer than we already do.  Chris Lawson has dealt with this subject at length

Bad Reasons to NOT Cure Aging 4 - Boredom:

Personally, I love life. I love being young (enough) and living each day to its fullest. I can’t recall a single instance of a person in good mental and physical health telling me that he or she is ready to die.

So, no, I don’t see the potential issue of boredom being a reason to not cure aging.

There's more on the issue of boredom back in the Fight Aging! archives:

How could anyone feel that they would be bored? In part, this might stem from the Tithonus Error itself. A person may assume they would be old and incapacitated in their extended life span, thus unable to do interesting things. But if you have the body and physical capabilities of a 30 year old, why not go clubbing in a new city to new music at 90. Or 190?

...

Even active, inventive, happy people often assume that longer healthy lives will bring boredom through repetition, however. Ask someone you know how long it would take them to run out of new things to do and become bored if they could live in good health forever. Your friend will give you an outrageously low number of years, I'll bet. If you stop to think about it - rather than just going on instinct - you'll soon realize that you are never going to be any more likely to become bored of life than you are right now. There is simply too much to do, too many different things to think, feel, do and accomplish. In fact, the advance of technology means there is always more to do with each new passing year. New possibilities, activities and enhancements to the quality and variety of life are constantly opening up.

Your life is what you make of it, and the defeat of aging would keep that statement true for as long as you cared for it to be true. As I've often said, the real goal of a cure for aging is to enable a choice we do not presently have: the choice to see what tomorrow will bring, for so long as it interests us to do so. Therein is freedom.

Posted by Reason at December 12, 2007 8:30 PM | TrackBack (0)