Transhumanist Party USA members have been sharing a dialogue lately about growth of our common ideas. In the course of the discussion members have spoken a great deal about their thoughts on religious outreach. Outreach is an important deal for this movement and we need not be exclusive of any group which we can work with. So today, in a different argument but a similar one, I would draw attention to the elderly.
While many elderly people and even some founders of this movement understand transhumanism by their own senses, sometimes by idealistic means or because they wish to search for a "fountain of youth" using science, it is fair to say these types are a minority or even an outlier. Why would anyone want to live forever? What use does mind-uploading even have for one with a life that has already been lived? Their friends are passing away, and they begin to watch the world through their grandchildren. Things are beginning to wind down.
These people do not have the energy or ambitions of their younger years, in most cases. And while many elderly people are in great health, many more suffer declining health. Social security kicks in with the retirement years and the expectation of productivity and utility drop off. And so the recourse of those who have worked before becomes the support of others. This is mostly family. Sadly for most this becomes a downward spiral, and personal changes are rarely good news. Safe to say, this is not a condition which tends one towards futurist optimism.
Now, in the poorer, less developed countries of Africa, Latin America and some parts of Asia, we recognize that the young populations here can sometimes triple the number of the elders. Here we probably won't face this issue. But in the West, the post-Soviet bloc, Japan and China, there are very good reasons to worry about the elderly condition. Naturally this will become much more so in America as time goes on. And being that the elderly in the richest countries often have made it into the upper economic strata, these people need to be on our side.
Selling science as politics seems difficult unless we have some concrete means of achieving the growth in scientific thought and advancement, rather than simple aims as set forth. I've seen some particularly industrious members of our party who want to build hydroponics farms or have decided to study in STEM fields because of transhumanism (partially, myself included), and I see many people who have the time and the passion to see something through. Rather than just reaching out with our ideals, I hope we will reach out with our actions. And one way in which we can reach out is to help better the elderly condition. We can show the elderly people that society doesn't want their lives simply to end. We can show them how important they will be in building a new world.
We should fight for improvements to healthcare quality and access, defeating cancer and neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's, and for the installment of a single payer healthcare system. The people who have worked hard for our societies or the veterans who have fought to protect them should never go without their needs fulfilled. While the economic system may tell them in many ways that they are an unimportant commodity, it is an understanding of the underlying human condition which we need. We have to advocate for a more caring society. That is the way to make the transhumanist promise something for which to live forever.
For these folks we must also imagine the dynamics of pain. Chronic pain stalks people throughout society. While in some cases pain is simply a necessary response to stimuli there are useless pains we are apt to suffer, with no foreseeable stimuli. The transhumanist has a strong argument to advocate against this. Although the vision of a world filled with angels given by the great David Pearce may be far off, advances in neuroscience can quantify pain. And when we fight pain nearly to its annihilation, be it with actual changes to neural architecture which are still in their infancy or by means of site-specific drugs, we will free a lot of people.
John Lockers
No comments:
Post a Comment