The long life

 The long life


The impetus to extend life is born out of the unique human capacity to create wealth.

As long as a society of humans believe that money is precious, the house of cards, monetary wealth,  will stand.

The wealth of the achieved is the lifeblood of those on the way, on the same pathway to security.

It is not the amount of money that matters. Money can't buy love or happiness. It is just a sufficiency issue. Non-monetary wealth is the outcome of enough invested money to generate a supportive monetary income which will do the survival work for you (plural). This is the price of freedom

In his book, Rationality, published in 2021, Steven Pinker records the following observation. Poverty needs no explanation. It is the natural state of human beings. What needs an explanation is wealth.

David A. Sinclair, in his book, Lifespan, published in 2019, summarizes the scientific field of the study of aging, in which he has been a leading light for decades, despite being only middle-aged now. The fundamentals of how we age and how we might intervene to prevent aging, is now quite firmly established. 

The big leap is to move beyond dealing with diseases related to age, focusing instead on preventing aging itself.

If we learn how to extend life well beyond the current healthspan, most of us would still retire when our wealth would allow us to do so, when it would support us. Work would then be transformed into goal oriented activities not driven by the need to do anything for money anymore, except to manage our wealth and avoid becoming greedy.

But the exceptionally old, like the exceptionally wealthy, may become very lonely.

Like wealth, extension of lifespan (healthspan) is a societal phenomenon, a rising tide raising all boats. Pity the individual who survives for many decades after everyone he or she has ever known or loved is long gone.

Lifespan has risen steadily in modern times, particularly in wealthy nations, with an increase of two or three decades in as many generations. As a result, we are quite happy to live into our 90's if the quality of life is reasonable. If it keeps going up for most of us, it is likely that we will get used to it too.

With regard to whether there was wealth before there was money, the answer is yes, there certainly was. Of course, there were possessions of some sort, but I am referring to non-possessive wealth in the context of pre-agricultural gatherer-hunter societies. Perhaps that wealth, founded upon wisdom and experience, action derived insight and memory, generational knowledge and respect for long ago rendered procreation, child care and education, was respected and valued, promoting survival of the elderly in the tribe during the years they could no longer fend for themselves without assistance. This kind of wealth continues to play a very important role in modern life, and, in addition, governments in wealthy countries, provide care for the elderly as well. 

In this context, a modern society will have to decide whether or not the cost to the country for all those who live truly long lives, is worth the expense incurred by all the taxpayers as a result.



Aubrey Lieberman


6/20/23 

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