The Issue of Introducing a Cure for Aging
The issue of introducing a cure for aging has been a burning concern currently in our society. It is an essential debate since it concerns human fundamental moral and the effects the medicine will have on the environment. Different versions of arguments have been put forward concerning the discussion. The essay will consider the reasoning for having a cure for aging and point some of the shortcomings with these views. The composition will then clearly put forward the reasons as to why developing a cure for aging should strongly be rejected.
The Impact of Anti-Aging Medicine on the Environment
Using John's illustration, Drew Magary, the author of postmortal, he does a meticulous and a fantastic job of imaging how anti-aging medicine might affect the environment and the whole world in general. No doubt, this essay will base its argument in the same context. Automatically the surrounding will be changed in that; people will live for long in their young bodies hence they will be more active as Drew Magary states. The Anti-aging population also brings in innovation and invention of new mechanisms of carrying out farming thus producing enough and better food for human survival.
Environmental Consequences of Anti-Aging Population
Yes, the anti-aging population will innovate and invent new ways and mechanisms of productions through industrialization in attempt to produce enough food, but the move will cause climatic change and increased global warming. The most significant threat to the biodiversity of the planet and the ecosystem is the increased global warming and the climatic change. Global warming causes increased temperature on the earth surface making it unfit for some animals and plants hence creating extinction (Acrema et al. 2014 p. 466-473).
The most critical environmental challenge is how and where the "forever" human population of the era of postmortal in its active nature will source for resources to sustain them through the years to come. The limited and scarce resources will rapidly be exhausted hence causing environmental degradation (Jacobsen 2017 p. 1-18). The Anti-aging population will cause depletion of natural resources such as arable land, fossil fuels, frontier forest, and freshwater and so on. Study research by UNEP global environment stated out clearly that, in few years' time, human consumption will have exhausted the available natural resources and that, each will require a third more land to supply her/his demands than what the planet earth can provide.
Additionally, anti-aging population exacerbates many environmental and social factors including, pollution, exhausting the necessary resources, overcrowding the living areas since people will live longer and therefore wreaking havoc and increasing their exposure to infectious diseases. The cure for aging will also bring in, increased loss of habitat such as wetlands, rainforest and so on.
The Impact on Population and Consumption
Although a group may stand out and support the introduction of a cure for aging, from my point of view, it will be a total mess to the environment. The planet will be worse than it is and people will never enjoy living for longer years when young. Therefore such a cure should never be introduced.
Introduction of a cure for aging will also have a significant effect on population and consumption. Anti-aging community translates to an active citizenry. The more active the people, the more fertile it becomes. As Drew Magary put it in his novel "there aren't going to be future generation anymore, there will only be us, one infinite generation, forever growing and reaching an unknown and incomprehensible size." Of cause high population implies high productivity, more and advanced means of production and so on. The larger community also creates immediate demand for goods and services, hence promoting entrepreneurship which in turn creates job opportunities for the individuals.
Although the supporters of the cure claim that the high population will promote economic development regarding high food productivity and creation of employment; depletion of resources will be rampant, and the increasing population will have no place to harvest more resources to support the production. In the novel, one anti-cure supporter in the book puts it clear "they all want to live forever and don't have the faintest clue how they're going to eat hundred years from now......" depletion of resources will stop production leading to unemployment since firms will close down and more and more misfortunes will follow. With the high demand due to high youthful population, consumable goods and services will not be enough (Katz et al. 2017). When the products are not enough it means, the prices will be increases making it difficult for the low earning population to be able to acquire the necessary goods and services which in turn lowers people living standards
In addition to that, a high number of youthful population overstretches the social amenities, including hospitals and other products and services provided for public use. Such cases make the community live a miserable life (Katz et al. 2017). According to Drew Magary In his book; he puts indirect that youthful population will have an impact on goods and services hence making them expensive for the low income earning group. I support that, young population causes an increase in population which in turn increases the demand or consumption for goods and services and therefore making it difficult for some groups of people to afford the necessary commodities. From my perspective, thus, aging cure should never be introduced at all.
The Impact on Science and Technology
The cure for aging will also have an impact on science and technology. First modern machines will be developed to be used in hospitals hence saving many innocent lives. Improved technology will also be useful in industries. Technological advancement also reduces the time for production and the effort required in producing any material including, automobiles, and machines and so on. Besides, the technological progress invigorates economic growth and development as the useful technology reduces the cost for production hence promoting saving which in turn enhances economic growth.
Potentials and problems go hand in hand, how many machines will be enough for such a population? Will the government be able to take care of the high number of people assured by the improved infrastructure in hospitals? What about the pollution to the environment from the improved industries? Raw materials will also not be enough for the industries set up, and therefore the enhanced industrial infrastructure will be in vain. Again, as long as there are no raw materials to support the production, no way the economy can grow (Golden 2017). The cost of production will be too high since the resources are extremely scarce. Most of the nations all over the world will be very poor.
Buckminster Fuller once said, "Humanity is acquiring all the right technology for all the wrong reasons." His sentiments stand out to be very accurate, to start with, technology is making us so bust to the point that we can't have time with our loved ones which may affect our relationships to a great extent. Moreover, still, on the negative side, weaponry is coming up. The rivalry between nations is escalating due to advancement in technology, as different countries compete for the development of new and more powerful weapon machines. That notwithstanding, governments are spending a lot of money developing weapon industries as the citizens live horrible lives (Birkland 2015). Needless to say, like any other field of development, technological development and advancement is a double-edged sword with both advantages and disadvantages. Therefore, curing aging will not at all solve any technical aspect, it will instead, cause more harm if more people change and depend entirely on machines. Therefore, a cure for aging should never be introduced.
The Effects on Space Technology
A youthful population will have an influence on space technology regarding developing new and improved rockets to travel in different planets. It's all argued that it would be as a result of technology (Aithal and Shubhrajyotsna 2015).
But, although people will have an opportunity to know more about the universe and will understand the planes from a better perspective. The effects of all those inventions revolve in the pollution to the environment. The higher the number of machines, the higher the impact on the environment thus making the earth not a conducive place for people and animals. Therefore, introducing an aging cure will cause more harm to human beings, animals and the environment in general and thus the drug should never be legalized.
In conclusion, I would be happy when I'm 100 years but in the youthful body of under 30's as Magary says in his book. But having a clear understanding of the effects of having a young population, I firmly stand against the introduction of an aging cure which will enable people to live for many years but in their youthful bodies.
Work Cited
.Acreman, Mike, et al. "Environmental flows for natural, hybrid, and novel riverine ecosystems in a changing world." Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment 12.8 (2014): 466-473.
Aithal, P. Sreeramana, and Shubhrajyotsna Aithal. "A Review on Anticipated Breakthrough Technologies of 21st Century." (2015).
Birkland, Thomas A. An introduction to the policy process: Theories, concepts, and models of public policy making. Routledge, 2015.
Golden, William T. Science, and Technology Advice: To the President, Congress, and Judiciary. Routledge, 2017.
Jacobsen, Michael Hviid. "Towards a post-mortal society: Paving the pathway for the sociology of immortality." Postmortal Society. Routledge, 2017. 1-18.
Katz, Elihu, Paul F. Lazarsfeld, and Elmo Roper. Personal influence: The part played by people in the flow of mass communications. Routledge, 2017.
