Part II: Old-Age Suffering

In Part I, I addressed the worries that often arise from the prospect of people living a lot longer, the potential societal downsides of curing aging, which revolved mainly around overpopulation.

But what about the benefits?

First of all, notice that, contrary to the downsides, I'm not saying "potential benefits", as I believe some of these are so enormous and self-evident that virtually everyone would agree on them.

For example, does anyone contest the amount of suffering most people go through in their last years, and often decades, of life? Helplessly spending years on end in a state of continuous decline is no way to live. All I have to do is look at my dad who's been having osteoarthritis of the hip since his early sixties, and, right now, can barely walk or even stand up without excruciating pain. And the worst thing is, it's not getting better. These old-age illnesses rarely do. So, barring surgery, which is far from a sure thing when it comes to this particular condition, he'll be spending the rest of his days in constant physical pain while increasingly losing his ability to walk. And I'm not even getting into the dietary restrictions he has to put himself through to control his blood sugar, which, for a sweet tooth like himself, is no picnic.

Is my father the exception or the norm? Anyone who's had an elderly relative knows that is the experience of the overwhelming majority of old people. Just a constant state of physical pain and decline, not to mention the mental torment of knowing it is unlikely to get any better and not much can be done about it. It's just a matter of when it starts: 55 for some, 80 for others.

Of course, that doesn't mean old people can't live great and happy moments, but these moments all happen in concomitance with the aforementioned pains in the background.

Is this reason alone not worth investing a significant amount of our society's brains and other resources into curing — to whatever extent we can — this painful and unforgiving ill that's been plaguing humanity since its dawn?

Those for whom this isn't reason enough, tune in for Part III where I discuss the other great societal benefit of curing aging.

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See also:

Part I: Concerns about Overpopulation

Part III: A Much-Richer Society

Part IV: The Personal