Chapter 1 of Ronald Bailey's Liberation Biology is titled "Forever Young: The Biology and Politics of Immortality". The author is clearly an expert at naming his chapters. In Chapter 1, he first reviews the science of aging (the known science at the time he wrote the book) then evaluates the arguments posited by the left-wing and right-wing opponents of human immortality.
In the biology portion of the chapter Bailey notes that the ability to stop human aging remains medically speculative. Environmentalists will be annoyed (or possibly thrilled depending the depth of their insanity) to learn that "the only creatures that actually experience aging are human beings and the animals they protect" and aging "is a human artifact that in the natural world didn't occur". Cryonics is also discussed fairly, a rare intellectual phenomenon. The political portion of the chapter is a compilation of the arguments bioconservatives use to denigrate/oppose/mock the ideal of human immortality. Plausible refutations of the common arguments are provided. Bailey demonstrates that the logical policy conclusion for the "pro-death" crowd is espousal of SHORTER human lifespans.
The heart of the LIBERTARIAN BIOETHICS BLOGger fluttered when Steven Austad Olshansky, a University of Idaho biologist, predicts: "People want this so badly, it's going to happen no matter what the government does." Here here, my good friend. The libertarian goal, I hope we agree, is to persuade the masses to desire LIBERTY so badly it will happen regardless of what the government does.
In the biology portion of the chapter Bailey notes that the ability to stop human aging remains medically speculative. Environmentalists will be annoyed (or possibly thrilled depending the depth of their insanity) to learn that "the only creatures that actually experience aging are human beings and the animals they protect" and aging "is a human artifact that in the natural world didn't occur". Cryonics is also discussed fairly, a rare intellectual phenomenon. The political portion of the chapter is a compilation of the arguments bioconservatives use to denigrate/oppose/mock the ideal of human immortality. Plausible refutations of the common arguments are provided. Bailey demonstrates that the logical policy conclusion for the "pro-death" crowd is espousal of SHORTER human lifespans.
The heart of the LIBERTARIAN BIOETHICS BLOGger fluttered when Steven Austad Olshansky, a University of Idaho biologist, predicts: "People want this so badly, it's going to happen no matter what the government does." Here here, my good friend. The libertarian goal, I hope we agree, is to persuade the masses to desire LIBERTY so badly it will happen regardless of what the government does.
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