I get all the new problems this would cause - starvation is already a significant killer in the world, but I just can’t make myself the arbiter of what should be done with the knowledge and wherewithal to cure all diseases. I would make the pill as widely available as I could. It’s not my place to decide if we’re better off this way, or all fighting for food (and oxygen?) in twenty years. (I presume water won’t be a problem, because dirty water won’t be a problem - you can’t get a disease from it anymore.)
I agree with fluiddruid. Withholding cheap and effective medical treatment specifically so that people will die is monstrous.
Not only would this pill eliminate untold suffering, it would have numerous other positive side-effects. A much more favorable dependency ratio would lead to a stronger economy and higher material standard of living. Our best and brightest scientists would be able to keep working for much longer, leading to more innovation. A 120-year voyage to a new planet wouldn’t seem as daunting.
It is of course important to remember that in the context of that show as a whole, the Vorlons were wrong.
Not about immortality, and arguably not about preferring law to chaos, but that would be a different thread.
The ubber rich and powerful assholes of the planet being nearly immortal might be a major problem.
You speak as though only the Vorlons or only the Shadows could be wrong. The show makes it plain that they were both wrong, and had no right to interfere. If you want to argue in favor of holding humanity back from entering a new era (which this pill would open up), then quoting Kosh won’t help your case.
Wow. This is the reason for the flood in scriptures and the shortening of the human life from near 1000 years pre-flood to post flood 120 years max. People in power are usually hard to remove, but death accomplishes that. And for Steve Jobs to come up with that, well Wow.
I was thinking of free access to it, just to get rid of deadly diseases but this does cause that problem, power structures that lead to every inclination of man becoming evil. Perhaps the Lord was right in denying access to the tree of life afterall, it may not really work here.
The pill goes to everyone. It’s just the ultimate end to everything medical research is doing now. If the pill just prevented heart disease would you release it? Of course. Just diabetes? Of course. Cholera, AIDS, Malaria? Of course, of course, of course. All of these pills will increase life expectancy and increase problems associated with overpopulation, but you would have to be a heartless bastard not to make them available.
Available medicine is just this pill minus n things which can’t be cured/prevented currently. The big one of course is simply “old age,” likely to be a group of issues which may or may not be solved one by one.
Let’s say there are 100 things which can kill you (bear with me, the accuracy of that number is irrelevant). Do you give out a pill which can cure 1 of those? 2? 10? 50? 99?
All of you who are saying it should not be released, which diseases (which you know you can cure/prevent) are you going to keep untreated in the population?
Personally, I think death is a bad thing. I don’t want to die. Maybe some day I will want to die, but I’d like it to be my choice of how and when.
As for problems like overpopulation, well, if death is the only solution, it’s still available if necessary, it just has to be intentional. And I’d be willing to bet there are better solutions than killing billions of people.
This is the last I will post for this particular hijack, but no, the show does not make that plain. The show makes it plain that Sherridan & Co. believed that to be true. They could have been wrong, and the Vorlons correct. For that matter, the Shadows might be correct.
Back on topic–man should not be immortal. I don’t give a damn if you want to argue Vorlons, Shadows, Aslan, Norse Mythology, the Bible, or AD&D 1st Edition rules. Immortality is not the Holy Grail some seem to think it is. More of a curse.
I have a compromise: the Luddites can go die of old age and disease, and we can live long lives unburdened by their whining about how much long, healthy lives suck.
A significant number of people die each year as a result of accidents, murders, etc…In some old thread, it was established, based on statistics, that the actual life expectancy in such a scenario would be only some centuries. I don’t remember how many. Maybe something like 600-700 years.
ETA : That’s for a western country. So, starvation and such things weren’t taken into account.
I agree and I have changed my mind. The pill goes to everyone.
We already know we can live in space for months at a time. With longevity, we’ll solve the over population problem easily.
And I get to keep my Mother and Father.
My vote is the pill never sees the light of day.
That said - IF I chose to distribute it, it’d go to everyone except for a few handpicked dictators.
I thought about this before. I’d give it to people on the condition that they sterilize themselves.
I think this is an important point the proponents are overlooking. I would only agree to such a “pill” if everyone on the planet would have unfettered access to it, which is the reason for my comment to have it added to the world’s water supply. However, in such a scenario something would have to be done about the other side of the equation. We can’t have vastly extended lives without curtailed birth; it would be an unsustainable proposition, quickly overtaxing even the most abundant resources humanity relies on.
So, what do we do? I know this is just an exercise, but let’s inject a bit of realism into it and discuss the consequences, and possible countermeasures as well, of providing the option of virtually endless life to anyone who wants it which, in my opinion, would be the vast majority of the world’s population, at least at first.
Can’t do it. It’s not fair.
Missed the edit window.
Before anyone mentions it, I’ve already thought of entropy. However, my WAG, as I’m completely out of my element here, is that this is such a long-term prospect as to be irrelevant to humanity in the short term of, say, 100-200 years, during which period I suspect there’d be a number of new, geographical, political, and socioeconomic crises as a direct result of extended life globally.
I put “other” because I think the decision as to what should happen to the pill is too important for me alone to decide. I would destroy any pills I have and get in touch with academics and maybe governments and try to work out what the best thing to do is (which would probably be more nuanced than the options in the OP).
But I’ll say this: ageing and death are Bad Things. It’s good to conquer them and let’s not fall into various fallacies of naturalism or thinking we need to fit into the world’s existing “plan”.
But of course, if everyone lived indefinitely, with our level of technology and society as it is, it would be a clusterfuck. Hence why my decision needs to be a considered one.
Well, of course I’d feel differently then, but as I said, I’m opposed to that. If the choices were for the pill to be available to everybody or nobody - not even me - I’d choose nobody.
And I don’t particularly want immortality; I just would like as much time (and expectation of reasonably healthy years) to spend with my son as if I’d become a father at 25 or 30, rather than at 55. If being the only one to take the immortality pill, and opting to check out at a certain point, is an option and it enables me to achieve that goal, I’m doing it. Call me selfish if you want to. 
I’d distribute a version of the pill didn’t include an immunity to poisons, genetic defects, or disease, but say it was the full version.
I figure that’ll take care of most of the worst jackasses in about two weeks, tops. Less, if it’s before a three-day weekend. 