As I near the quarter century mark(still six months away, but I'm not getting any younger), I can't help but think of aging and the creeping decrepitude that decends upon us. It makes us weak, rots our brains, and makes our bladders operate with minds of there own. Well, unless we're lucky enough to die young. Sooner or later I'm probably going to get old like my parents. I suspect that such things are genetic. Fortunately, my mortality is still in question.
What most people don't realize (if they take the time to think about anything at all) is that aging is something our body is programmed to do. We don't HAVE to age, but we age because our body begins to pack it in at a designated time. EXAMPLE: Your small intestine DO NOT age and in fact are as intact when you die as the day you were born (ever hear of someone dying of small intestine failure?). There are some birds that do not appear to age, and of course, ectotherms do not age at all as we know it. So why would a cluster of cells that had been obsessed with its own survival eventually self-destruct? Well, I've got a theory about that...
I suspect that it has something to do with your body sacrificing itself for the good of the species. In theory, any of your children that survive to aldulthood are gentically different than you and possibly a bit better adapted to the environment. So you age and eventually die to ensure that you do not compete for too long with your offspring for the scant resources of the world. Menopause and prostrate problems also help to ensure that old people do not contribute too much to the genepool. ON TOP OF THAT, when we get old, we got slower, weaker, and fatter, and if a predator has a choice, is it going after the 20 year-old who can run or fight with youthful vigor or the 80 year-old who's contantly bitching about his prostate?
We age and die for the betterment of our species. Pretty cool, huh?
The scary thing that it IS possible that we will be able to stop aging completely. I doubt that we would be able to do so on post-natal humans, let alone make old people young, but the implications are scary enough. Can you imagine what life would be like if people didn't get old? That would be an easy fix for the Social Security problem, that's for sure. Population explosion would have a new meaning, though. Furthermore, you know how old people get set in their ways, refuse to do anything new, and stuff like that? Can you imagine those people still being in the mix of things, bitching and complaining and generally holding up progress? Just because their bodies stop aging doesn't mean their brains will stay young.
Although that brings up an interesting question. Due to hormones and chemicals and stuff, I think we can all agree that 20 year-olds are a lot more idealistic, reckless, and active than most 30 year-olds. At what stage will the aging stop? Do you want to live in a society full of 20 year-olds? That would suck to no end. What about chicks? How are their hormone levels going to react when they run out eggs 20 biological years before they're supposed to? Interesting questions...
Then there's the question of how we die. If we do not age, I can absolutley guarantee that there will be no slipping away in the sleep. Every death will have to be violent or diseased, and sooner or later everybody's going to get cancer, especially if they maintain the high metabolic rate of youth. Well, at least we'll be getting back to nature, when nothing dies happy.
Nope, I hope they never get it, although I know that they eventually will. I at least hope that we get to the stars first, so we have a place to put all of those old young people. Otherwise, we're in trouble, since people today have forgotten what suffering is, and therefore cannot accept it the least bit of discomfort.
Actually, I hope I invent it. I could buy peace of mind.