If you agree with the sentiments in this piece, then the best way to help make the end of aging come about in the real world is to materially support ongoing early-stage research into the repair of the known causes of aging. The best way to do that is to make a donation to the SENS Research Foundation, an organization with a stellar track record of helping to unblock languishing fields of research - such as senescent cell clearance - and convincing other funding sources to join in or strike out on their own in the resulting research programs:<p><a href="http://sens.org" rel="nofollow">http://sens.org</a><p><a href="http://sens.org/donate" rel="nofollow">http://sens.org/donate</a>
One day, an anti-dragonist on a speaking tour visited a town. When he arrived, most of the town's inns were already full, and he had to make do with a small room in a small in in a run-down part of the town.<p>The next morning, he stood outside the inn on his soap box and told people about how the dragon could be defeated. A small crowd gathered around him. When he had finished speaking, a woman asked: "My children are hungry. My husband went off to war against the tigers and never came back. How does killing the dragon help them?"<p>"Well, they too will one day be fed to the dragon!"<p>"But they are hungry now. My baby is very weak. She cries all the time. Even if she doesn't die, she's going to grow up stunted."<p>"I'm sure you can find a way. Anyway, I'm here to talk about the dragon, it's..."<p>Another interrupted him: "My son was killed by the king's men three weeks ago. They laughed as they cut him down. No one will hear my case."<p>"Well, I'm sure they had a good reason. Your son was probably a criminal."<p>Another said: "My family beats me because I don't want to marry the man they chose for me. Right now, I wouldn't mind being eaten."<p>"Listen. I'm not interested in the problems of you little people. They're not my problems, and anyway, you're probably lying, or exaggerating, or just not trying hard enough. But I'm scared of the dragon, because the dragon's going to eat <i>everyone</i>, including me. So we should concentrate on that, don't you agree?"<p>And the people rolled their eyes and walked away.
Every single day, we give birth to ~400,000 new people. All of them will most certainly die -- many of them after a difficult, heart-rending stint on this planet.<p>Allowing people to live longer (while an admirable goal, to be sure) doesn't improve the overall human experience at all. The same % of us will still live in poverty (and most likely that % would be even higher).<p>Before making people live longer... we should get better at providing for the folks who are already here.
Biological death is like a dragon that kills a bunch of people every day, but which can be defeated with technology if society makes the investment.<p>I just saved you from reading 5000 words waiting for the point.
On one hand, I am in favor of people striving to increase longevity and maybe even eliminate death.<p>On the other hand, I view organizations such as SENS as nothing more than "wizards" of the past who promised kings that if they drank the blood of their foes or consumed gold, they would find eternity.<p>I think, for me at least, the comparison of death to a dragon is a poor one. Death is not some malignant entity that causes harm. It is, now, and for the foreseeable future, the reality for all living creatures. I understand people are afraid of it, but I think the real dragon is the fear of death, not death itself.
> As he strode to the podium, a small boy yelled out from the audience: “The dragon is bad!” ... "The dragon is bad and it eats people"<p>Sometimes I wonder if the only thing between us and widespread support for ending mortality is someone standing up and stating the obvious for everyone to hear: "Death is bad!"<p>We see high-profile people acting as spokespeople for various health-related causes. Where are the high-profile people calling for an end to death? Not just the people that scientists and engineers will listen to, but the people that everyone will listen to?
First, that was an amazing story and extremely well written! Second, the analogy it represents and your critique afterwards were fabulous! Kudos to you sir!
I hope this day does come about, when we have slain the dragon, for the rich and poor alike. But there is one huge challenge we must solve first, where do we put those extra 100,000 people every day? How do we clothe them, or more importantly feed them?<p>Watching the first half of torchwood "Miracle Day" was both enlightening and frightening in that regard.<p>That's the real problem we need to solve first
Even if there was a technology that halted aging and let you live indefinitely (barring accidents), there's no way that treatment could be given to everyone.<p>For all you know, the technology already exists in some military research lab but is being kept secret.