One day while pondering the secrets of life you come up with a pill. This pill cures and immunises against all known (and unknown diseases), poisons, virii, bacterial infections, genetic disorders, you name it. You can’t die ‘of old age’ either. None of the usual infirmities that come with age trouble you, as the pill also abolishes the Hayflick limit making cells effectively immortal.
Essentially it turns humans into the elves from Lord of the Rings - the only way to die is a violent death. I’ll also include starvation, dehydration and exposure to excessive heat and cold, too - we still need the basics of food, water and shelter.
It’ll be cheap and easy to distribute; within a few months every human could have access to this pill if you will it.
So, do you take it upon yourself to destroy the last enemy, do you prefer the current system or somewhere in between?
I’d keep it for myself. While I would like the chance to go on living and learning, I’m pretty sure overpopulation would become a problem pretty damn quick.
Then the pill is given only to people who will abide by a strict rule against reproduction.
Are we colonizing the universe?
Then the pill goes to everyone.
In the first case, I’m tempted to say there should be some kind of standard concerning who can be offered the pill in the first place. This is because I am afraid far too many people would take the no-reproduction option, thus robbing future generations of the kind of diversity that goes into making our species valuable.
Since we’re talking about imaginationland anyway, I’ll note I’d even be amenable to the idea that access to the pill is controlled by an elite cabal who keeps its existence secret from the public at large.
The world is as it is now. You could selectively distribute it, didn’t think of that option…thank God for the word ‘other’. However, I’d wager those you deemed unworthy wouldn’t take to kindly to it.
If you take it for yourself I also can’t guarantee that shadowy government agencies won’t be cracking open your brain case on your 200th birthday to find out your secret, so you might have that hassle.
I’m basically in the ‘not only no, but hell no’ camp.
The only thing that would make me consider it is if the pill sterilized the people who took it. If you want to have kids you have to pass up on the immortality (and be limited to one child).
As much as I would like to never lose another loved one, I voted the pill doesn’t see the light of day. Now, I’d change that if we can move off this planet so we don’t have overcrowding.
On balance, I think something like this would be a very bad thing. Curtailing death would necessitate the curtailing of births, and how would that be implemented?
You raise an interesting premise though. If people couldn’t die of old age, that would mean there’d be some system of perpetual regeneration of cells, although this also raises all sorts of new issues.
In addition, I think this would bring into existence a brand new form of discrimination, which would be terrible.
I think in the end your life would become a fate worse than death, be it from unitended consequences, unforseen long-term side effects, or just simple deadly boredom. Entropy will out.
I think he’s right. I’d surely take the pill myself, because one of the downsides of becoming a father at age 55 is that you know you’ll see far less of your son’s life story than you’d have wished. But I wouldn’t want the pill to become generally available, and I think I’d choose a point, around the century mark, to check out. Maybe I’d go skydiving and just not bother to pull the ripcord, or find some other equally exhilarating exit. But I don’t think I’d want to hang around forever while everyone else I knew died.
I hate making hard/no win choices. Hell, even menus cause me mild panic. And for as long as I can remember I’ve always thought the “I can keep on living forever and eventually become miserable for a multitude of possible reasons” or “I can end my misery but who the hell knows whats behind door number two” choice to be one of the worst I can imagine.
Yeah, some people manage to check out early. But its just early, they were certainly checking out in well less than hundred years anyway. Check out now or live for A VERY long time is a whole nother level of choice.
Would you feel differently if everyone you knew took the pill as well? What about if it was put into the world’s water supply so that everyone had the potential for endless life?
Death is an important part of what makes life special. We have limited time and it’s part of what encourages us to get things done. Besides, for many people, there is more to our existence than this life, and at a certain point, many of those people may be ready to move on. Frankly, I wouldn’t be surprised if there were also plenty of people who think that this life is it who would eventually want to die as well.
I think it would completely change a lot of rules as well. In a world where everyone can live forever without a violent death, would we treat murders or manslaughters any differently? What about the ethics of suicide? We might still see someone that’s 16 doing it as fundamentally wrong, but what about someone who is 216?
I voted that I’d keep it for myself, maybe a few close friends and family. And I’d take it only if my wife did too.
Since it doesn’t guard against accidental death odds are we’d die eventually… It just might not be quite as soon. Then again, death might still be right around the corner so that uncertainty is still there. Other than experiencing youth for the rest of our lives and the likelihood of living far past our normal life spans, not much will change.
I’d make it available to as many as want it. I’d take it myself. I can think of enough things to do to keep myself amused for the next dozen centuries at the very least - much longer with a reason to plan. After that, I’ll just make it up as I go along.
And as long as it doesn’t make me indestructible, then the old ‘you’ll quickly get bored of eternal life’ thing doesn’t even matter (not that I think it’s necessarily true in any case).
It’s not about ‘curing death’ as based on the OP – it’s ending aging and disease. If I could do that tomorrow, I would. It’s a logical extension of modern medicine. Eventually, people will still die from misadventure, violence, or suicide. There’s nothing ideal or noble about letting people suffer through curable medical problems. Is it not a good idea to get rid of vaccines because the world needs smallpox, or a bad idea to strive for peace, because we need wars to kill people off? The life we live is very, very different from many of our forebearers, with much longer life expectancies; I’m glad that I don’t need to worry too much about dying from a minor injury getting infected or during childbirth. Should we not do those things? What makes this pill any different?
I realize that this would clearly have some negative repercussions as we’d talk about fundamental changes to life as we know it. At the same time, I think humanity would adjust. Hell, there are already efforts to limit our population growth – we wouldn’t magically lose the will to deal with the problem just because disease went away. Population growth is a concern, but I’m not willing to just let people die off because of that concern, and I don’t get why anyone would withhold this pill if they are willing to use medical science today.
We all have our time and place on this earth. At some point we have to make way for the next generation. Someone else will live in our house, raise kids and continue the cycle.
I have no desire to outlive everyone I’ve ever known. Death is necessary.