Advancing Biotechnology Means that the Utility of Savings Is Increasing Rapidly
We stand in the early years of a rapid, sweeping revolution in biotechnology. Every few months we see researchers demonstrate an entirely new capability, never before seen: controlling cells; spurring healing where the body would not heal on its own; building the basic elements of organs from scratch; depopulating donor organs and repopulating them with the patient's own cells - and more. As the cost of tools and knowledge in the life sciences continues to plummet, the pace of development accelerates. This rapid progress in applied biotechnology is the true grail of the computer age, enabled by cheap processing power and all the associated technologies that come with it.
Not so far down the road are organs grown to match our needs, stem cell transplants that heal our age-damaged tissues from within, artificial cells and engineered bacteria that scour our bodies for the waste products of metabolism that build up to harmful levels in the old. Beyond that even more impressive medical advances await: artificial immune systems, far better than the real thing, the complete implementation of the SENS program for rejuvenation medicine, and the dawn of the age of molecular manufacturing - everything you might need, from drugs to bioimplants, built atom by atom in desktop nanoforge machines.
Which brings us to an important point, buried in an otherwise unrelated post:
The utility of money is going to rise with advances in biotechnology. Some extra tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars set aside for medical expenses might save your life.
Whatever resources you have saved up today are growing more and more valuable with time - far more than their present market value would imply - because we are entering the age in which you can use saved resources to buy additional healthy life. With each passing year the amount of additional healthy life you could purchase increases. While that yearly increase is comparatively gentle now, and the amount of extra life very modest, both will become much, much larger ten years or twenty years from now.
So save. Save aggressively, and invest wisely in speeding the right biotechnology. One day that saved money will buy you access to medical technologies that provide additional decades of healthy life; that additional time and vigor added to your life span is far more valuable than whatever ephemeral trinkets you could choose to buy today.
Great post! Great message! We all need to practice self control to avoid spending money frivolously on cars and expensive houses (just two examples). Save money instead, invest it wisely and give it to SENS. Thats the way I do it. When we're 80 years old - what difference does it make if you drove an Audi or a Honda 50 years prior? None - except for the $30k you would have saved at the time could have grown to $150k in that span of time. What would $150k buy you in terms of medical interventions when you need them at age 80? I don't know, but I would like to have the cash for them rather than not!!