This article<\/a>\u00a0reports how both the negative effects of ageing like Alzheimers are\u00a0looking to be cured,\u00a0as well as getting old itself.<\/p>\nMy job is to stand things on their head, so I\u2019m going to be the party pooper here. Don\u2019t get me wrong, the fact that I have enjoyed a relatively healthy life up to this point and that I have all my teeth if not all my hair, is down to the fact that I have been part of the wealthiest clan of people (per capita) ever to walk the earth. I\u2019ll probably not only live longer than my grandfather, but I\u2019ll probably enjoy good health and be physically fit longer than him.\u00a0 Most of us look forward to living well into our eighties, and that has to be a good thing.<\/p>\n
However, while delaying death might be good, is it good to pretend death will never happen at all? What kind of fool pretends he\u2019s going to be thirty forever? Yet we\u00a0see old movie stars with baggy arms and turkey necks who have incongruously tight faces (and other things) We see that old lecher Hugh Hefner\u2013who must have had his face lifted with a crane. He\u2019s still cavorting around in his bathrobe and a pipe pretending to be the Playboy he never really was in the first place. Yuucch. Is that nauseating or what?<\/p>\n
Furthermore, the scientist who wants us to live forever is predicting that all this extra time will eventually make us bored and we\u2019ll decide to kill ourselves. In other words life might be longer, but maybe it will simply extend the misery for some people. The grumpy old guys will be grumpy for longer. The nagging, gossipy and miserable women will have even longer to share their misery. The selfish, egotistical, immature and tyrannical will simply have longer to be their awful selves.<\/p>\n
So really, the whole, hugely expensive campaign to extend life is morally neutral. Long life is good because life is intrinsically good, but a life is not a good life simply because a person isn\u2019t dead. The real quality of life is a moral quality. As I age I don\u2019t want to just be an old man, I want to be a good old man. I want to enjoy life\u2013the joys and the sorrows\u2013the agony and the ecstacy. I want to laugh and love and stay active and do stuff\u2026and every now and again I guess I want to be a little bit grumpy too.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Do you want to live forever? Scientists are working on drugs that will delay the effects of ageing. This article\u00a0reports how both the negative effects of ageing like Alzheimers are\u00a0looking to be cured,\u00a0as well as getting old itself. My job is to stand things on their head, so I\u2019m going to be the party pooper […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":557,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1138","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
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