Life Extension
Today, we’ll be covering life extension technologies. What can we do to extend our lives? And should we want to do this in the first place?
Philosophy Reading
Your philosophy reading for today is a little dated, and a little long. So you can skim the science section (Section III). But do pay more careful attention to the intro and Sections I, II, and IV.
From Beyond Therapy by the President’s Council on Bioethics: Ageless Bodies.
After you’ve read that, and by way of contrast, you should view at least three of Bryan Johnson’s YouTube videos. You can pick whichever three you want!
Science Content
The science of life extension is multifaceted. This makes it a challenge to understand, as you need to have a thorough understanding of how human life operates normally to appreciate the hurdles that need to be overcome. We can talk about that.
For Tuesday, I’d like for you to explore a few things:
The section entitled “Research” in the Life Extension entry in Wikipedia.
Check out the Kurtzgesagt video “Why Age” and see if you can take some notes foor yourself that compares the information in Wikipedia to the topics addressed in the video.
In class, we will have a short quiz on these materials and run some activities related to the science after some introductory framing pieces.
Fiction Content
There is an excellent science fiction book that has life extension technology at its core - Altered Carbon, by Richard K. Morgan. Please read it [OPTIONAL].
Netflix made an adaptation of this excellent book. However, the show is rather permeated with scenes of extreme violence, sex, and drugs. If you watch season 1 episode 1, you’ll get the premise of the show (and also all the content warnings) [OPTIONAL because it is pretty graphic].
If you aren’t into that sort of entertainment, please feel free to read a summary of the book/show or have a chat with an AI about it! What does that vision of the future look like as a result of the life extension technology? Is that a good thing or a bad thing or a mix?