The Methusaleh Pill
I have long been eager for the unveiling of the Methusaleh Pill. While casting about the internet just now, I searched for references to the Methusaleh Pill, not knowing if I had heard of it sometime and someplace, or if I had just coined the term myself. Alas, I’m not the only inventive dreamer out there and there were plenty of references.
I ran across one blog post, written several years ago, that covers some of the ground in longevity research, but then dives deeply into the downsides the author saw society would run into with the advent of the Methusaleh Pill.
Let’s consider some of them.
“Generational milestones in our life will have lesser meaning – marriage, kids, education certificates, kids, their marriage, grandkids, grandparents.”
Depends on the person I suppose. Plenty of folks even with today’s short lives, seem to have difficulty in finding meaning in the milestones of life. I would think that the real question is the more general one of where one finds meaning in life. I come back to the part of the Rule of St. Benedict that I quoted here, that suggests neither the search for wealth nor the desire for heaven are routes to a meaningful life. With the Methusaleh Pill the personal growth industry will be in even bigger demand. At least with short lives, the brutishness of it all is manageable. With long, perhaps virtually infinite life span, the need for finding satisfaction, peace, and inner calm will be greater than ever.
Another objection is that with the old folks hanging around longer, the progress up the management ladder at work will be even slower. This objection seems grounded in the thought that the technology behind the Methusaleh Pill will be disconnected from progress in other areas. The Post-Scarcity Age will be radically different. Imagine if every physical need could be meet at nearly zero cost. The basis of current economic theory (scarcity) will itself be scarce. Again personal growth will need to come to our aid, as life for each of us will be like that of the super-rich: we will all be retired and not have to work. Work will be more avocation that what is required not to starve. Many of the other objections the blog’s author cites are all related to thinking that scarcity would continue, and perhaps become worse.
The struggles will be internal, not external, in the Post-Scarcity Age. Time to pickup and reread Amusing Ourselves to Death!
January 5, 2013