These Difficult Times

Does it make good sense to use bio-enhancing tools to improve and extend human life? This question was asked by Graham Lawton in NewScientist Magazine’s 13 May 2006 edition.

“For many people that future [promising to extend human biology] cannot come soon enough, and no wonder: human enhancement promises to fulfill some of our deepest-held desires. Suppose you were offered an extra 50 years of life, endowed with what Schwartz calls “superheath”, physical and mental capabilities that exceed the ones you were born with, not to mention the prospect of an even better life for your children. Would you turn it down?” (p. 37)

My argument against a future of such seduction is: we’re tuning it down now—we’re turning it down already. One need only to look at the level of obesity in American society today, approaching 30% of the population according to American Sports Data, to see that Americans have a difficult time taking care of themselves despite the myriad of fantastic healing tools and life-improving techniques, tools and techniques that we have today. One might think that Americans were the victim of a gigantic lie, that we have no tools to bring ourselves the “superhealth” Lawton mentions. But I believe that we do: I believe that we have many, many tools to bring us superhealth today. But the question arises: If we have such tools today, why do so few Americans use them?

So, allow me to alter Lawton’s question one step further: If you were to have tools that could “fulfill some of [your] deepest-held desires”, why would you not take them, as many Americans fail to do? This seems to me the bigger, the more important, and the more problematic question.