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Longevism is an ideology devoted to achieving long life span with modern science.[1][2] It is sometimes associated with transhumanism.[1][3]
Definition
[edit]The Italian Transhumanist Manifesto declares longevism to be the "extension of the human lifespan and life expectancy within the limit of the opportunities increasingly offered by biological and physical sciences".[1] Longevists have been described by others as "desirous of living as long and healthy a life as possible"[4] and "individuals who attempt to apply themselves current knowledge about the control of aging".[5]
Extropian Max More defined a longevist as a "person who seeks to extend their life beyond current norms (but who may not wish to live forever)".[6] However, abolishing death has been seen as "the logical extension of longevism".[7]
History
[edit]An early longevist was Luigi Carnaro, a Renaissance-era Venetian who advocated the health benefits of alcohol.[8] At age 83, he wrote a discourse on healthy living, which was succeeded by three more such discourses by the time he was 95.[9]
Sociologist James Hughes claims that science has been tied to a cultural narrative of conquering death since the Age of Enlightenment. He cites Francis Bacon (1561–1626) as an advocate of using science and reason to extend human life, noting Bacon's novel New Atlantis, wherein scientists worked toward delaying aging and prolonging life. Robert Boyle (1627–1691), founding member of the Royal Society, also hoped that science would make substantial progress with life extension, according to Hughes, and even proposed such experiments as "to replace the blood of the old with the blood of the young". Biologist Alexis Carrel (1873–1944) was inspired by a belief in indefinite human lifespan that he developed after experimenting with cells, says Hughes. Hughes also notes K. Eric Drexler's proposal of using nanorobotics to cure disease and reanimate frozen bodies in his 1986 book Engines of Creation. In the '80s and '90s, philosophers were pulled together with longevity scientists by the work of extropianism, according to Hughes. Leading futurist Ray Kurzweil popularizes a version of Singularitarianism, says Hughes, that focuses on human benefits such as lifespan enhancement. Hughes also highlights Brian Alexander's 2004 book Rapture: A Raucous Tour of Cloning, Transhumanism, and the New Era of Immortality, which chronicles the merging of communities of longevists and genomic scientists, drawing the longevity subculture away from pseudoscience and towards legitimate science.[3]
Aubrey de Grey, proponent of the anti-aging movement, is a contemporary example of a prominent thinker on longevism.[citation needed] He was featured along with Ray Kurzweil on the album Neon Future I by recording artist Steve Aoki, who has been called "one of the most prolific campaigners for life extension".[10] Other modern longevists include writer Gennady Stolyarov, who insists that death is "the enemy of us all, to be fought with medicine, science, and technology",[11] and transhumanist philosopher Zoltan Istvan, who proposes that the "transhumanist must safeguard one's own existence above all else".[12] Futurist George Dvorsky considers aging to be a problem that desperately needs to be solved.[13]
References
[edit]- ^ a b c Campa, Riccardo (July 29, 2008). "Italian Transhumanist Manifesto". Instititute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies.
The remaining 93% confine themselves to a much more pragmatic and realistic stance, defining transhumanism under this aspect in terms of longevism, extension of the human lifespan and life expectancy within the limit of the opportunities increasingly offered by biological and physical sciences.
- ^ Synnott, Anthony (October 27, 2011). "The Meaning of Life". Psychology Today.
Sensationalism: [...] Quality of life, not quantity: totally opposite to prudent, careful longevism
- ^ a b Hughes, James (October 20, 2011). "Transhumanism". In Bainbridge, William (ed.). Leadership in Science and Technology: A Reference Handbook. SAGE Publications. p. 587. ISBN 1452266522.
- ^ "Research at the Calorie Restriction Society". Alcor News. Alcor Life Extension Foundation. October 25, 2006. Retrieved 6 May 2015.
Since your Alcor membership defines you as extremely interested in living life, I imagine that you are also a longevist – desirous of living as long and healthy a life as possible.
- ^ Editors of Ronin Publishing (June 25, 1996). "Preface". Fountains of Youth: How to Live Longer and Healthier. Ronin Publishing. p. xix. ISBN 0914171763.
Longevists are not necessarily gerontologists, but are individuals who attempt to apply themselves current knowledge about the control of aging.
{{cite book}}:|author1=has generic name (help) - ^ More, Max (Spring 1993). "Self-Transformation: Expanding Personal Extropy". Extropy. 4 (2): 15–24.
Longevist: A person who seeks to extend their life beyond current norms (but who may not wish to live forever).
- ^ Dormandy, Thomas (March 2000). The White Death: A History of Tuberculosis. New York University Press. p. 432. ISBN 0814719279.
And, it goes without saying, the logical extension of longevism – the 'abolition' of death – would not be a solution but only an exacerbation.
- ^ Porter, Roy (November 23, 2006). "The case of consumption". In Bourriau, Janine (ed.). Understanding Catastrophe. Cambridge University Press. p. 185. ISBN 0521032199.
Dr Thomas Trotter endorsed the advice of the famous Venetian longevist, Luigi Cornaro, who prescribed at forty, two cordial glasses of wine a day, four at fifty, and six at sixty, while Dr Peter Shaw wrote a book in 1724 to prove – to quote his own title – Wine Preferable to Water, indeed A Grand Preserver of Health.
- ^ Porter, Roy (2003). "The Spectator: the Polite Self in the Polite Body". Flesh in the Age of Reason. Penguin Books. p. 135. ISBN 9780141912257.
An inspiration to all should be the renowned Renaissance longevist Luigi Cornaro, whose tale was told. [...] Eventually, at the ripe old age of 83, he composed his Discourse on the Temperate Life (1550), which propounded his regimen of health; a second discourse was added at the age of 86, a third at 91 and a fourth at 95.
- ^ Tez, Riva Melissa (May 11, 2015). "Steve Aoki, Dan Bilzerian, a giraffe and the search for eternal life". i-D. VICE.
Unknown to most, Steve is both an undeniable champion of life expansion as well as one of the most prolific campaigners for life extension. Understanding that the depth of his life's experience is limited by time alone, in his latest album Neon Future he pens lyrics such as 'Life has limitless variety... But today, because of ageing, it does not have limitless scope.' [...] Set up by the Steve Aoki Charitable Fund, the profits from the Dan Bilzerian party went to life extension research.
- ^ Stolyarov, Gennady (November 25, 2013). Death is Wrong (PDF). Rational Argumentator Press. ISBN 978-0615932040.
- ^ Istvan, Zoltan (October 2, 2014). "The Morality of Artificial Intelligence and the Three Laws of Transhumanism". Huffington Post.
- ^ "Futurist: 'I will reap benefits of life extension'". Al Jazeera America. May 7, 2015.
To Dvorsky, aging is a problem that's desperately in need of solving.
Category:Life extension Category:Transhumanism
- ^ John Vincent (2013). Schermer, Maartje; Pinxten, Wim (eds.). Ethics, Health Policy and (Anti-) Aging: Mixed Blessings. Springer Netherlands. p. 30. ISBN 978-94-007-3870-6.
There have been a number of social movements associated with the reappraisal of age-based social categories in the last thirty years. Two such developments are the focus of this chapter. They are the Third Age movement and the Anti-aging movement. These movements present contrasting perspectives on the culturally devalued status of old age; the former seeks to celebrate old age, the latter to eliminate it.