Many of us would like to live longer than the normal lifespan the nature has earmarked for human beings if not forever. Some people are not thus interested in the infinite life, but they definitely would like to preserve their youth for as long as possible. Needless to say, millions of scientists all around the world are working hard in order to find a solution for this difficult quest. Yet, let’s stop for a moment and decide, whether it’s a good idea in the first place? These are some of the most serious issues which can be caused by the extension of the lifespan of people.
The increase in the social inequality
Needless to say, the majority of communities, if not all of them, have been experiencing social inequality for thousands of years. So what will happen if the elixir of life is finally created?
Just in all state-of-the-art technologies used in the medicine, it will cost so much that only a rather limited group of people will be able to afford it at least at the beginning. Furthermore, it is also quite possible that the technique or substance making people immortal or at least stretching their lifespan sufficiently might be earmarked only for particular people. Why should we be such pessimists about the prospect of living forever?
For instance, look at the history of eugenics which aimed to increase the quality of people’s life by selecting the best genome for future generations. It is not a coincidence that people with particular diseases or genes were regarded as unsuitable for giving completely healthy offspring. According to the eugenics’ lobbied policies existing in the USA up to the 70s of the previous century, such people as those having alcohol or drug addicted parents or those suffering from mental or genetic diseases as well as criminals were sterilized in some states.
Learning from these historical facts, we can easily predict that even if it happens that the elixir of life won’t cost a lot which is still highly unlikely, the most powerful people of the world will do their best to set particular limits on who exactly can benefit from the new technology.
The risks of overpopulation can become the reality
As far as you possibly know, the problem of overpopulation is already here. On the one hand, the most overcrowded countries are usually the developing ones. On the other hand, even though people in the poorest countries of the world tend to have rather large families, they definitely do not use thus much resources as people of the western world. While the deprived people are struggling to survive not only starving, but even not having access to clean water, these are the people of the developed countries who enjoy over-consumption that drains out our planet.
Yet, no matter whose fault it is, the unlimited lifespan of human beings will definitely lead to catastrophic results. This is one of the reason for which such a breakthrough technology as immortality might be not widely available to everyone.
Evolution concerns
One of the greatest issues concerning an infinite life of a human being is the stop of evolution. No matter whether you believe in evolution or not, the organisms on the Earth are constantly changing. Even though someone might say that the time of the existence of homo sapiens is not long enough to cause significant evolutionary changes, our bodies are constantly adapting to a rapidly changing environment.
Needless to say, the ecology of the world surrounding us as well as the quality of food we are consuming combining with all the chemical substances we are using in our daily life are the factors which really have an effect on our bodies. In addition to it, the ecosystems surrounding us are also changing all the time and one of the greatest examples of these changes is the evolvement of new diseases caused by mutating species of bacteria and viruses.
Thus, our bodies are in the process of a never-stopping development, however, this development is possible if only we pass our genes to the offspring and our children will be new versions of us. Yet, if we have an infinite life-span, we will still be on the same level of evolution no matter how much we have already lived. With time, it will be obvious, that we are not as well adapted to the world, as our children.
We can’t know so far whether we will be able to resist the new diseases evolving with time. Furthermore, we might not be able even to digest the food of the future or even have our own offspring with the people of the future.