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Confessions of a Proselytizing Immortalist
people. Our scientific and technological advancements in the
past 100 years are already giving us vastly extended life spans
[15–17].
This brings me to my counter point to the ‘selfish’ accusa-
tion. The basis of my argument is that extending life through
medical interventions helps us to do more of what God, fate,
or evolution has planned for us to do. This is why we are
given, or have developed, the intelligence to stay alive longer.
When we stay healthy longer through CR, or anything that
we develop in the future, we can work longer and can give
more to the spiritual, scientific, or non-profit organizations
we affiliate with. I for one would love to be able to donate
more to the Methuselah Mouse Prize for anti-aging research
[18]. If the award for that was more near the largest ever US
lottery jackpot of 363 million, rather than the fifty thousand
dollars currently donated, we would shortly end aging. With
more prize money there would be a lot more contenders for
the prize that will be awarded to whoever can significantly
reverse aging in a mouse, or postpone it.
With a longer life, many opportunities would open up, for
new careers, new travel, and exploring the ever-expanding
questions of the universe. These conversations with people
can be very inspirational. It is surprising how creative people
can be when you open them up to talking about the future.
At times I am dismayed that with our current technol-
ogy my life will be so short. Yet my heart revels with what
epiphanies I inspire in my children about how things in
this world interact. I get a rush when I explain to them in
simple terms (and they actually get it) – about why it is
important for our country to balance the budget, how to
support universal health care, how people live in oppression
even today, or just explain any little piece of the puzzle to
them. With the help of the Unitarian Universalist Church’s
education programs, I teach them about the world’s reli-