A Cure for Ageing?

Prof. Vladimir Skulachev, one of the foremost experts in the field of bioenergetics, believes he has found the solution:



I'm not sure how much truth there is to the claim they'll have an actual medication to prevent ageing on the market anytime soon, but it's an intriguing prospect nonetheless.

I remain, as all should be, skeptical that this has the potential to become an absolute cure for ageing. There are several plausible theories regarding ageing, and I doubt that the phenomenon occurs in accordance with only one. It is also quite implicit that the motivation behind this technology is money.

While I am as excited about biological immortality and other biological enhancements as most, I am greatly opposed to allowing such technology to become available in capitalist markets. The sheer wealth inequalities intrinsic to capitalist societies guarantees that such (undoubtedly expensive) technologies would become fruits of the rich to establish greater dominance over the poor. Genetic engineering and other emerging technologies designed to enhance human performance would be destined to fundamentally alter the human condition, demanding philosophical and scientific reflection, and should therefore be implemented rationally and ethically—this is something that the capitalist market (and any unregulated market, for that matter) cannot and will not do.

If we are to improve our bodies and minds, let us forge the future together, not against each other in the manner of savages.

Revolutionary Wolf wrote:I remain, as all should be, skeptical that this has the potential to become an absolute cure for ageing. There are several plausible theories regarding ageing, and I doubt that the phenomenon occurs in accordance with only one. It is also quite implicit that the motivation behind this technology is money.

Any scientist approaching the public with a theory as grand as finding a "cure" for the ageing process should definitely be met with an appropriate degree of skepticism, I agree. Scientists in particular have an understandable tendency towards embellishing the results of their findings, to varying degrees, in order to attract private investors and/or secure public funds to subsidize further research.

While I am as excited about biological immortality and other biological enhancements as most, I am greatly opposed to allowing such technology to become available in capitalist markets. The sheer wealth inequalities intrinsic to capitalist societies guarantees that such (undoubtedly expensive) technologies would become fruits of the rich to establish greater dominance over the poor. Genetic engineering and other emerging technologies designed to enhance human performance would be destined to fundamentally alter the human condition, demanding philosophical and scientific reflection, and should therefore be implemented rationally and ethically—this is something that the capitalist market (and any unregulated market, for that matter) cannot and will not do.

If we are to improve our bodies and minds, let us forge the future together, not against each other in the manner of savages.

Quite right. The advances being made in the field of biotechnology are nothing short of extraordinary, but I find it completely unethical to even contemplate allowing the fruits of such research to be rationed out according to capitalist market principles—in other words, on the basis of whomever has enough disposable income to afford it. The notion of allowing the bourgeoisie to be the primary beneficiaries of genetic engineering (to say nothing of the current pharmacological breakthroughs)—which would inevitably occur within the capitalist mode of production—is truly horrifying. I'm immediately reminded of H. G. Wells's novel The Time Machine, where, in the future, humanity splits into two separate species due to generations of class-based segregation—the "Eloi" (descendents of an aristocratic elite) and the "Morlocks" (descendents of an exploited proletariat). Genetic engineering could very well hasten such a separation in the real world, by bestowing unto the children of the bourgeoisie such profound genetic advantages in life that permanent class stratification would naturally arise.

We mustn't allow the bourgeoisie the privilege of using genetics as yet another weapon in the class war. As you alluded to in your post, the only humane solution is to develop these technologies to the point wherein everyone might benefit from them, and then proceed to implement them according to a sound and just social plan.