The Anti-Aging Manifesto
A spectre is haunting the human race — the spectre of aging. It has reigned for so long that something even worse has happened…we truly believe it is unbeatable. We truly believe everyone must die one day and almost everyone before 100 years old. It has gotten even worse than that. It is so bad, some of us even believe there is something noble and necessary about dying. We speak of overcrowding and limited resources. It is not the fact that death is relentless and we can’t beat it, it is actually that we NEED death and it is a good thing for the survival of the human race. With this mentality, it indeed cannot get any worse than this.
Scientifically it will be very difficult to defeat aging and age related degeneration of our bodies and eventually death. However, we have the scientific tools, resources, and right people to work on anti-aging. Most importantly, we must first start with changing our attitude towards aging and death, as a society. We must separate some key concepts. Experience is great. Aging is not. Older people are great. The fact that they need to get much older is not. This is not about physical appearance. Anti-aging is about being able to enjoy life at full capacity for as long as you want.
There is a great quote attributed to Marianne Williamson that explains how convenient it is for most of us to believe that aging to death is an inevitable part of life. Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. This captures well how it is extremely scary once we allow ourselves to believe that we could actually keep our loved ones and all humans on earth today alive. It is an immense sense of responsibility and impending doom from which we try very hard to guard ourselves. However, avoiding this responsibility is no longer possible or morally defensible.
Imagine some of the advantages to controlling aging. Some of the most brilliant minds and most colorful people in history would still be alive today. How much further would we be scientifically if Einstein and others were able to keep discovering and thinking for another 200 years with anti-aging advances? Your parents and their parents could see your kids grow up (of course we would still age to adulthood) and spend family holidays with you. You personally could explore more of this world and try different careers without being confined into this painfully short lifespan arc we go through. Be a lawyer for 30 years and then try being a doctor for another 40? Sure, why not, follow your dreams!
There are tons of arguments that people love to make against anti-aging. One popular one is that interfering in what is “meant” to be is wrong or dangerous. Even self proclaimed non-religious people use such wording in conversation. I won’t spend much time on this one, as I think it is abundantly clear that we, as humans, have consistently rewritten both the status quo and what nature has seemed to have lined up for us. From flying 30,000 feet above the ground to swimming for hours below the surface of the sea to saving people from death (temporarily) by extraordinary medical treatments, we have repeatedly and without remorse combated nature to allow ourselves better, more enjoyable, and longer lives. Scientific exploration definitely brings with it power and responsibility. Daring to defeat aging does not mean abandoning all scientific rigor and safety measures. We will also need to adjust our culture to the lack of aging and age related death, but we have repeatedly adjusted quickly to all other scientific breakthroughs.
I can go on and on refuting each argument against defeating aging, and I probably will in further posts, however, I think all opponents should first honestly answer the following question. If you could press a button, without anyone else knowing, that would instantly allow you and all of your family live to be 200 years old (in good health, of course!), would you press it? If you answer yes, then you should not morally allow yourself to be an impediment to changing society to rally together to end this scourge that has haunted us for millions of years.
I, Michael Geer, will leave you all with this thought about anti-aging. We are all literally running out of time. All of you out there that love life and love waking up every morning to experience another day, join me and many others like me that are ready to lead this charge against aging and death. If you work in the anti-aging space, reach out, I would love to meet and collaborate.
In the end, Dylan Thomas can say it all much better than me:
Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
And you, my father, there on that sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Related
Originally published at livelongerlife.org on October 18, 2015.
