Have you seen the latest in biohacking? The wealthy are looking for more ways to extend their lifetime, from experimental therapies to blood transfusions. At the same time, research is ongoing to discern how long a human lifespan can be, with estimates suggesting upper limits ranging from 194 years to possibly over 500. And of course, there was the recent conversation between Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping, with Putin noting that organ transplants could be used to “achieve immortality” and Xi suggesting humans would soon live to 150. There’s a real drive right now to work out how to live as long as possible, by whatever means necessary – or to even find a way to cheat death forever. And I must ask:
Why?
Why are we so concerned with lifespans? Of course, it’s a good thing for people to live long, happy, lives, but there’s a long distance between that and using human organs to live forever – and I can’t help but wonder where all those lovely young and healthy organs would keep coming from. This drive to extend life and cheat death isn’t just coming from wanting everyone to live longer, because everyone isn’t benefiting. The wealthy and powerful might be able to extend their lifespans, but with most of the world struggling to afford a home, it’s not likely we’ll find the extra millions lying around to follow suit. This is a movement for the few, not for the many. And even if the technology was made cheap and accessible, do you want to live for 200 years if you’re spending 160 of them working for minimum wage? Is it a net human benefit to live longer, if the quality of our lives is getting worse? There’s no promise in this movement that if you could live for 300 years, you’d still only be working full time for 40 of them. Realistically, longer lives for everyone just means a longer wait to retirement. I don’t speak for everyone, but I don’t need to live 500 years, especially if I’m spending most of the time working for a pittance. So why is anyone pursuing this?
For a moment, let’s overlook the point about these treatments sometimes causing cancer: is it even good for us to live forever? What’s the point if most of us are living in misery? Source.
To me, the dream of living forever has an uncanny resemblance to the fear of death. Death is a funny thing: it’s tragic, traumatic, a frightening ending to all we’ve known and an entryway into a beyond. But it’s also the one single thing everyone will have to do (unless biohackers get their way). The death of a loved one, be it sudden or slow, is often painful and hard, but it’s also a trauma you share with so many others. There’s a kind of beauty in how we all, over time, experience and learn to live with loss. It unites us as one of a handful common experiences we all share. Now, there’s nothing wrong with a certain discomfort at the idea of death: after all, it’s a vast unknown, a threshold we don’t seem to come back from. But this fear and terror of death, as an enemy to be battled and defeated, doesn’t strike me as healthy.
I don’t love the phrase “losing someone” when it comes to death, because we don’t really lose the person who died. Losing implies a kind of possession or ownership, and we don’t own the people around us. It also can lead us to making the death of another person about us and our feelings, when really the centre of a death should be the person dying. It’s their life ending, not ours. We need to be able to let go. To let things exist, and end, as they should. Nothing is permanent on the earth, and that’s okay. Trees, animals, even the very continents and oceans, will change over time, and one day disappear. But new things will emerge in their place! And it’s the boundedness that death creates, that understanding that things aren’t forever, which gives us such momentum to explore, to discover, to experience. I know I won’t live forever, and that means I should make the most of the time I’m here for. The longer I can stretch that life out, the more I lose that connection to the world around me, and the further I drift from real Joy – if I lived forever, I could do something anytime, and I’d probably do it never.
The drive to optimise every piece of our lives and do everything as efficiently as possible isn’t even healthy; there can be physical, emotional and mental costs to obsessing over how to live as long as possible. Source.
Is it a coincidence that it’s the ultra-wealthy looking to extend their lives? This is the same demographic building mega bunkers to ensure they survive any apocalypse, who are doing everything they can to preserve their power and their privileges. They don’t want to die, because whatever happens next they won’t take their money and their power with them. They only have it now, and that scares them. Death is a natural part of life, or as Return of the King puts it: “Death is just another path, one that we all must take.” And think of the irony in this endeavour – the people looking to extend and preserve their lives no matter what, are often the same people whose actions are making the world so unstable and dangerous to begin with! What’s the point in living 200, 300, 500 years, if the world we built in the process is unliveable? Is death so terrifying we’d ruin the world to hold it at bay? Is it so evil that we’d take the lands, the lives, the organs of others to keep ourselves from it?
We don’t really know what happens when we die. There’s plenty of theories to be sure, spiritual and secular, but no definitive answer. Honestly, I’m okay with that. But I do like the principle of Christianity, that death has lost its grip over us and that we don’t have to fear it anymore. If death brought us to God, to love and to forgiveness and to gentle mercy, then why would it be something we fight to prevent?
Sometimes I wonder if people are scared that death brings oblivion, or scared that it won’t.
Ultimately, I don’t think we need to live forever. I’d prefer us to find ways to make life better, rather than make it longer. Maybe one day it’d be worth finding out how to live for 200 years, but in a world where we have poverty and war, starvation and disease, mass graves and genocides, I think we’re putting the cart before the horse by exploring immortality. Rather than find ways to live longer, we should find ways to make sure everyone lives happily, for however long they’re here. We should seek to build peace, joy, expression, and contentment, not just for a Select Chosen but for everyone. And the best bit is, we don’ need to wait on technological breakthroughs to do that. We can start doing today, right here and right now.
– The Teaspoon
The Teaspoon Brigade 
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