Longevity and Governance
Excerpt from “Why Knot?” Buy the book at Amazon
Different kinds of creatures live for different periods of time — some for a day or less, some for hundreds of years. And while they all live in the same world, that world must look different to them depending on their average life expectancy. If you only lived for a day and on that day a hurricane hit, your priorities would differ from those of a creature with a three-hundred-year life span, for whom storms seem normal and transient.
Thanks to the foresight of our nation’s founders, the US Constitution was engineered to provide a balance between short-term and long-term interests. The members of the House of Representatives serve for two years, the president for four years, senators for six, and the Supreme Court for life. But with advances in scientific knowledge, we become increasingly aware of the long-term consequences of present-day decisions. The way our governing bodies are now constituted, they cannot be expected to give sufficient weight to long-term, possibly irreversible consequences. But how can we get from where we are now to where we need to be to achieve the necessary far-sighted balance in legislation? I imagine a scifi solution.
In the socially static Middle Ages, the Three Estates — commons, church and nobility — were each represented in government. Each presented its point of view and, in the best of times, strove to arrive at constructive compromises that protected its rights and interests. In Plato’s Republic, classes were artificially created. Citizens were trained and brain-washed from birth for the roles they were destined to play in society, under the benevolent protection of the Guardians and the wise rule of the Philosopher King. In Brave New World classes were genetically engineered.
I imagine a time when it will be possible to genetically engineer longevity. Then it would be physically possible for everyone to live a very long time, but that would necessitate reducing the birth rate to avoid disastrous overpopulation. Such tampering with the birth rate would make humans more vulnerable to extinction in case of some new disease or natural disaster. Instead, this technology could be used to create classes and governing bodies distinguished by their longevity.
One house of Congress could consist of people with short lives, who would champion the needs and concerns of the present and of the immediate future. Another house could consist of people who will live far longer and are more concerned about consequences that will show up decades or even centuries in the future. Perhaps there should be a third house as well, to represent the middle ground.
