Class
Article
College
College of Humanities and Social Sciences
Department
English Department
Faculty Mentor
Briana Bowen
Presentation Type
Poster Presentation
Abstract
For much of human history, diseases and disorders ranging from tuberculosis and the flu to cancer and Alzheimer’s have appeared inevitable and unstoppable. Yet modern medicine offers remedies to many illnesses that used to be fatal and continues to make astounding steps against other disorders that experts now understand to be treatable. In the last 10 years, scientists have made remarkable progress regarding the causes of aging itself, and current trends in technological, medical, and genetic research indicate that groundbreaking lifespan-extending and vitality-extending biotechnologies will soon be developed and may be implemented within decades. Some experts suggest that “curing” aging will ultimately be an easier task than the fight against cancer and argue that the first person to live to the age of 130 is likely alive today. If these claims prove true, living to greater ages without the typically detrimental conditions of morbidity that accompany old age could be on the horizon, and some elements of age itself might no longer be inevitable. Under the projection that these technologies eventually reach the public market, the social, political, and economic consequences for US and global society will be drastic. This project takes a two-part approach to assessing the emergent frontier of life-extension biotechnology, first examining the scientific basis for this field and key recent progress points within it, then stepping back for a wider exploration of the practical and ethical implications that these projected disruptive advancements could bring. Questions of health inequality poignantly brought to the fore during the Covid-19 pandemic are only likely to grow as life-extending treatments become, at least in initial phases, available only to those who can pay. Major strains are already facing the structure and sustainability of socioeconomic safety nets such as the US Social Security and Medicare systems—and reforms will be yet more urgently needed if average life expectancies swell to the upper 80s or into the 90s in rich countries. Current life expectancies, already lengthier by far than most in the human record, are combining with the acceleration of job automation and artificial intelligence to create economic strain and displacement on young people—a trend unlikely to reverse if the feasible working age extends by another two or three decades. Already troubling trends in overpopulation and global food security will inevitably also be affected by a significant change in average human lifespan. For all the myriad unknowns associated with the life-extension biotechnology frontier, this much is clear: if the revolution in lifespan and healthspan comes into fruition as some experts believe, it will change the world. Planning for societal disruption and transformation of this magnitude must start now.
Location
Logan, UT
Start Date
4-8-2022 12:00 AM
Included in
Effects of Life-Extension Biotechnology on Global Society
Logan, UT
For much of human history, diseases and disorders ranging from tuberculosis and the flu to cancer and Alzheimer’s have appeared inevitable and unstoppable. Yet modern medicine offers remedies to many illnesses that used to be fatal and continues to make astounding steps against other disorders that experts now understand to be treatable. In the last 10 years, scientists have made remarkable progress regarding the causes of aging itself, and current trends in technological, medical, and genetic research indicate that groundbreaking lifespan-extending and vitality-extending biotechnologies will soon be developed and may be implemented within decades. Some experts suggest that “curing” aging will ultimately be an easier task than the fight against cancer and argue that the first person to live to the age of 130 is likely alive today. If these claims prove true, living to greater ages without the typically detrimental conditions of morbidity that accompany old age could be on the horizon, and some elements of age itself might no longer be inevitable. Under the projection that these technologies eventually reach the public market, the social, political, and economic consequences for US and global society will be drastic. This project takes a two-part approach to assessing the emergent frontier of life-extension biotechnology, first examining the scientific basis for this field and key recent progress points within it, then stepping back for a wider exploration of the practical and ethical implications that these projected disruptive advancements could bring. Questions of health inequality poignantly brought to the fore during the Covid-19 pandemic are only likely to grow as life-extending treatments become, at least in initial phases, available only to those who can pay. Major strains are already facing the structure and sustainability of socioeconomic safety nets such as the US Social Security and Medicare systems—and reforms will be yet more urgently needed if average life expectancies swell to the upper 80s or into the 90s in rich countries. Current life expectancies, already lengthier by far than most in the human record, are combining with the acceleration of job automation and artificial intelligence to create economic strain and displacement on young people—a trend unlikely to reverse if the feasible working age extends by another two or three decades. Already troubling trends in overpopulation and global food security will inevitably also be affected by a significant change in average human lifespan. For all the myriad unknowns associated with the life-extension biotechnology frontier, this much is clear: if the revolution in lifespan and healthspan comes into fruition as some experts believe, it will change the world. Planning for societal disruption and transformation of this magnitude must start now.