“Who wants to live forever?” Freddie Mercury asked sadly in the 1986 song of the same name.
Answer: Many people – so many that it has long been a cottage industry.
As a physician and scholar in the medical humanities, I found the pursuit of expanding human lifespans is both fascinating and full of moral dangers.
For example, in the 1970s and 1980s, Merv Griffin Show had a guest 32 times-Life Expansion Expert Durk Pearson, who had more fans than any guest except Elizabeth Taylor. In 1982, he and his partner, Sandy Shaw, published the book Life Extension: A Practical Science Methodbecame the No. 1 bestseller of the New York Times, and sold 2 million copies. A specific recommendation involves taking choline and vitamin B5 to reduce cognitive decline, combat hypertension and reduce the accumulation of toxic metabolic by-products.
Last year, Pearson died at the age of 82 and Shaw died in 2022 at the age of 79.
No one can be sure if these life-extending experts will live sooner or later than they avoid many of these supplements, and just exercise and eat a balanced diet. But I can say that they do not live longer than many of the accomplices of similar wealthy people.
Despite this, they remain young forever alive.
Consider tech entrepreneur Bryan Johnson Project blueprinta lifespan extension effort inspired by the 2025 Netflix documentary Don’t die: Those who want to live forever. His plan includes setting up a home lab, taking more than 100 tablets a day, and receiving plasma transfusions, at least one of which comes from his son.
Johnson is not alone. Amazon founders Jeff Bezos, Google founders Sergei Brin and Larry Page, and Oracle’s Larry Ellison, among them, are well-known people who have invested a lot of money. One approach involves taking a plug solvent agent – targeting drugs that may drive the aging process, although more research is needed to determine its safety and efficacy. Another is human growth hormone, which has long been touted as an anti-aging mechanism in advertising campaigns, with its features that are very suitable for the elderly. (“How did this 69-year-old doctor own a 30-year-old body?” read an online ad).
These billionaires might say that because of their wealth, they have more lives than ordinary people. They may also share more bland motives, such as fear of increasing dying.
But basic desires are equally important morals, and for some, spiritual reality.
Quality and quantity
Morally speaking, is it a good thing to hope to live forever? Is aging, or even death beneficial to the world and to the individual?
Cicero’s About Aging Provide some insights. In fact, the Roman politician and philosopher pointed out that articles about it helped him find peace with increasingly ancient troubles.
In the text, Cicero outlines and responds to four common complaints about aging: it frees us from managing affairs, damages physical vitality, deprives us of sensory satisfaction, and puts us on the brink of death.
To make aging impossible for us to manage affairs, Cicero asked us to imagine a ship. Only the young man climbed up the mast on the gangway, ran and released. However, we found one of the captains who commanded the captain. Rome’s Supreme Council was called the Senate, from the Latin “elder”, and for those of us through the years we most often seek wisdom.
As for whether aging can damage the vitality of the body, Cicero claims that strength and speed are compared to age and discipline. Many older people who take care of themselves are better than young people, and he gives examples of people maintaining good vitality in their later years. He argues that those who stay healthy will do a lot to maintain their psychological strength, a concept supported by modern science.
Cicero reminds readers that these diet and drinking pleasures often lead people astray. Instead, as people get older, they can better appreciate the pleasure of thoughts and character. Compared to the quality of dialogue and fellowship, delicious dishes are characterized by less attractiveness to something on the plate or dining companion.
Although death is still an inevitable result of aging, Cicero distinguishes between quality and quantity of life. He wrote that life is better than longevity, and for those who live a good life, death looks as natural as birth. Those who want to live forever forget their place in the universe, which will not revolve around any person or even species.
Those more mentally curvy might find themselves attracted by Scottish poet George MacDonald, who wrote: “Age is not all decay; it is the swelling of the inner new life that witheres and destroys the husk.”
Embrace the circle of life
What should I do if I realize my dream of extending my lifespan? Will the world be a better place?
Einstein, who had a long lifespan, could have been balanced or even surpassed Stalin’s harm. His harm exceeded his decades, would it surpass his death?
At some point, retaining the lives of the people who live now indefinitely will mean that there is less space for those who do not yet exist.
Pearson and Shaw appeared on many other TV shows in the 1970s and 1980s. “By the age of 60, your immune function may be one-fifth of what you were when you were young. However, you only need to take the nutrition you can get in a pharmacy or health food store for excellent repair.”
For Pearson, extension is a biomedical challenge, an effort that is focused on engineering rather than world-centered.
However, I think the real challenge in human life is not to live longer, but to help others. Adding extra years should not be seen as a goal of pursuing goodness, but a byproduct.
In the words of Susan B. Anthony, “The older I am, I seem to have to have greater strength to help the world; I am like a snowball-the more I throw, the more I gain.”
Richard Gunderman is a professor of radiology, pediatrics, medical education, philosophy, liberal arts, philanthropy, and medical humanities and health studies for Indiana University Secretary. This article is from dialogue.
publishing – February 26, 2025 at 4:48 pm IST
