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Living to 130 or more could have downsides
(by Hertha Binder - April 21, 2010)
OF KIDS AND NATURE, BY HERTHA BINDER
Living to 130 or more could have downsides
Live to be 200 years? It might not be all rosy bliss.
My friend Joan was bubbling over. "You know what I heard on TV yesterday? They think in another 50 years the average person will live to be a 130. And by the year 2100, people might get as old as 200 years." She looked at me. "Don't you think that's great? Sure, we two won't get the benefit of it anymore, but your Chuck and my niece's kids might live to be 130."
I put down the stack of papers I'd been working on. "Interesting."
"Well, you don't want to die, do you?"
"Not soon, anyway, and I'm sure that, with artificial knees, hips and shoulders, with new valves in our hearts, transplanted livers and corneas and gene splicing, in addition to vaccines, antibiotics and healthful foods, our lives can be prolonged. With anti-wrinkle creams, plastic surgeries and hair implants, we might even look presentable."
"That's it!"
"Yeah, but wouldn't people procrastinate forever? Get a job, start a family -- can still do it in 20 years. Always wanted to see Alaska? It'll be there in 10 years, why hurry?"
Joan smiled. "But it would be nice not to be rushed."
"Would you still retire when you're 65 or 70?"
"Probably."
"Then what will you do with the other half of your life? We have to feel that we achieve something -- raise a family, preserve the environment, teach children, uphold the laws, help people find a home as you do, organize and produce instructive newspapers, heal the sick, invent a better computer, entertain or give spiritual leadership. Others have to benefit from your life, or you'll soon feel empty."
"You could still do a lot of fun things. Travel, for instance." She chuckled. "That'll keep the tourism industry busy."
I nodded. "You know, 100 years ago, the life expectancy in the United States was about 40 years. As this was gradually prolonged to the present 70-some, certain diseases increased drastically: cancers, age-onset diabetes, Alzheimer's. Those come later in life. Our great-grandparents died of smallpox, plague, pneumonia or blood poisoning before they had a chance to get cancer. Now, might new crops of diseases show up if we lived two or three times as long?"
"Never thought of that."
"Another thing -- imagine all the people who died during the last 100 years were still alive. Where would they all be? If they live twice as long, you have twice as many in Chardon, in Bainbridge, in Cleveland; twice as many in New York, Tokyo, Rio de Janeiro and China."
"Looking at it your way, yes."
"The world population was 2 billion in the early 1900s. Now, it's 6 billion. It has tripled, mostly due to antibiotics. If all those guys would live, you'd get 12 billion. Scary, isn't it? If it ever comes to that, much stricter birth control will be needed, no matter what the pope might say."
"Maybe we could emigrate to another planet."
"My guess is that it'll be later than the year 2100 before we can organize a mass exodus from Earth."
"You think there'd be no advantage to a longer lifespan?"
"Oh, I'm sure there is. If Mozart had lived twice as long, he'd have composed many more symphonies and even approached the style that Beethoven later developed.
"If Einstein had another lifetime to think, he'd have found a formula that applied to all natural forces, including magnetism, in addition to gravity.
"Mother Teresa's influence on care for the poor would have sky rocketed in a few more decades and, together with a longer living Ghandi, who knows what progress India would have seen."
"But the bad people would live longer too."
"Yep. Genghis Khan, Napoleon, Stalin, Hitler and Al Capone would have wreaked more havoc. Let's hope there won't be such guys in the future. We have created 'clean energy,' nuclear power, but can't quite control it from blowing us all to smithereens. We've eradicated oodles of diseases and thereby created a population explosion that chokes the Earth. Extended life will create new problems that have to be solved."
Joan had a wistful smile. "And I was so happy to dream of a longer life"
"I'm sorry I pulled a cloud over your sunny day. With some luck and good health, you'll enjoy many more years. Just don't dawdle the time away thinking you have 50 more years to go."
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