This Sunday, I will be giving a presentation at Christ the King Catholic Church in Southwest Minneapolis on “The Future of Faith in an Era of Accelerating Change.” (I hope the talk will be recorded and, if it is, I’ll post a link to it in a future edition of this newsletter.)
One of the many topics I’ll be discussing is the all-too-real possibility of radical life extension. In yesterday’s Wall Street Journal, there was an opinion piece entitled “AI and the Fountain of Youth.” ($Paywall). Here is just one paragraph:
“For generations, we’ve accepted [death] as inevitable. But that assumption may no longer hold true.” The author goes on to add that even reversing aging is a real possibility.
Society is NOT prepared for this level or scale of change at either the secular or spiritual level. With regard to the former, radical life extension of even 10 years will wreak havoc on Social Security, Medicare, long-term insurance and pension plans. Social Security and Medicare are already under great stress, and if people begin living a decade longer, these systems could very well collapse. If they do, the safety net for tens of millions of Americans could evaporate with frightening speed. The resulting political fallout is difficult to predict, but it is almost certain to be painful and ugly.
Despite this reality, most of our so-called political leaders–from President Donald Trump down to the newest member of the U.S. Congress–refuse to even acknowledge the issue. Unfortunately, putting our heads in the sand and hoping the issue will go away isn’t an effective strategy.
At a spiritual level, the crisis may be even greater. In the short term, it is highly unlikely everyone will have equal access to the drugs, medicines and treatments that will radically extend a person’s life. Is it fair that the wealthy will have first access? Is this right? Is this just? Is radical life extension even wise from a personal or societal perspective? (Personally, I have grave doubts.)
A reckoning is coming. We need smart minds thinking, planning and working on this issue today. More importantly, we need wise hearts and souls contemplating possible paths forward NOW! (As an example of why radical life extension may be so disorienting to people, consider this little thought exercise: Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, and I are both 61 years of age. Imagine it is 20 years in the future and Jeff Bezos looks a sprite 41 years old because he has chosen to reverse aging (and has the financial resources to do so) but I have chosen to age naturally and look 81. We will still be the same age but, to the human eye, we will appear to be separated by 40 years.)
Society is on the verge of changing what it means to be human, but humans alone may not be sufficiently equipped to navigate a path forward. Access to a higher power may be necessary.
It is my opinion that the world will soon experience a wave of spiritual revivalism as people and communities alike grapple with the question of why we are here and what we are meant to do with our time in this realm–be it limited, extended, or, God-forbid, unlimited.
