Living Longer
Jeanne Louise Calment is officially the oldest human being ever. She lived for 122 years and 164 days. Scientists may someday be able to extend human life much further than that. They believe that we will be able to change our DNA to produce gains of hundreds of years. There are already research proposals to study how to make these changes.
But how this will benefit society? Our society is based on the principle that people are not immortal – we all age and die within a certain time. We divide our population into groups based on age and treat people according to those age groups. For example, people typically retire at around 65 years old and receive a pension until they die. If people lived much longer, this retirement schedule would have to change. Perhaps we will need to consider a person’s age relative to their actual physical condition: a man might be 100 years old but have the physical condition of a 50-year-old. In this case, he may want to continue to work. In fact, this could become an economic benefit for society.
Another debate will be about the environmental cost of the increasing population. Will our world be able to survive if we have to support the millions who want to live a long, long time?