Politics as Usual and Engineered Longevity
Thoughts on engineered longevity are boxed into the standard, simplistic media viewpoint at Washington Examiner - everything is politics, and politics supposedly looks like this: "The right's reaction, I predict, will be to call for a moratorium on such innovations until we can determine whether life-extension therapies are 'playing God.' The playing God argument is, well, played out. If keeping people alive longer through conventional means isn't playing God, there is nothing categorically different about introducing breakthroughs that prevent age related illnesses to begin with. I dare say, people who believe in the sanctity of life will do well to consider the benefits of life-extending technologies for humanity. After all, as I suggest above, driving people into black markets is no way to enforce morality. And driving people into the grave because of some errant idea about God's plan doesn't do justice to what God's plan might actually be (i.e. that it may include life extension therapy). The left's reaction will be no less predictable. The left will say we should have a moratorium on the technology until we can figure out how to give everyone 'access' and quell Malthusian concerns about resource depletion and overpopulation (which will be unfounded). They will lament the gap between the poor short-livers and the rich long-livers. Then they'll try to cast life extension as a 'public health' good in order to socialize it, regulate it and ration it. This would be a grave mistake - one as serious as if we'd said people have a basic right to mobile devices. Socializing mobile technology would not only have retarded its development, but it would have limited its uptake. Almost everyone has a cellphone today, even though they didn't in 1990. Markets have meant better, faster and cheaper tech for the masses over time. It will be no different for life-extension therapies if they are left primarily to market forces."
Link: http://washingtonexaminer.com/blogs/opinion-zone/2010/12/get-ready-fountain-youth-near
What will drive certain social conservatives nuts will be if radical life extension is just expensive enough that most people can afford to either do radical life extension or have kids, but cannot afford to do both. Most people would forgo having the kids and become childless post-mortals. For some reason, a society of childless post-mortals seems to scare a lot of social conservatives.
I'm much more worried by the left than the religious right on this one. When people debate longevity science I find that 'playing God' is scarcely ever uttered as a concern. What's more it's easily countered. Stifling arguments about overpopulation and equality of access are rife however, and are already doing harm.
If you hear "Playing God" rarely, then you must be living in a very progressive area, Ben. Where I am, it's pretty much the default argument, it doesn't even reach the point where the case of access could be genuinely discussed. Really, both left and right have problems with it, but my bet is that it will be easier with convincing the bleeding hearts afterall that curing aging ( and death at all to the most possible extent after that ) is a noble cause in itself than convincing the right could ever be, namely because it's so obviously psychologically appealing if you're an atheist/agnostic and dying equals lights out and pure nothingness, which last time I checked, isn't very common among social conservatives. I don't know what sane human could really deny themselves such a gift, considering the alternative here, even if they babble malthusian right now. Later, if the market doesn't do its magic as quickly as possible with this, then unwashed massess will be so outraged that no leftist demogogue will be even necessary to bring about the social upheaval, so either way, people will have their hands on this somewhere down the line, through free exchange, black markets, simple threat of force or mumbling prayers to Azatoth, whatever works.
I think Ben is right on this.
Um, guys, I don't know if you've noticed but the thing is - The Western Left is dead. They won't do anything, and I mean anything, that would be really harmful to the private sector in the long run, not in the next 30 years I would bet. If somebody thinks Obama is a "socialist" then they have another thing comming. The only lefty things left are the cultural stuff, gays and abortion, the dirty rich can sleep well because no Lenin is going after their assess, not in the First World for sure. Other then flaming some of those culture wars now and then, The Right and The Left are just pupils fighting during the recess brake, it's just that, the "Teacher" is above both of them.