Forever Young

While reading Sherwin Nuland’s portrait of Aubrey de Grey ("Do You Want to Live Forever?" February 2005), I couldn’t help but imagine how Nuland might have portrayed a budding Newton, Darwin, or Einstein. My guess is they would also get painted as brilliant but wrongheaded. Just for fun, let’s assume de Grey is right and that somehow all the biological interactions among the seven agents of death work in some miraculously advantageous way, paving the way for our great-grandchildren to choose whether they want to extend life indefinitely. Even if society sanctions extension, innumerable questions arise about temporal issues. Unless our feeble prophetic abilities are considerably enhanced, the horizon of our judgment will be no match for the life span de Grey envisions. Meanwhile, Darwin must be wondering how long it will take Extenders to out-survive individuals sufficiently humble to make way voluntarily for a next generation. Then what?

William E. Cooper
President, University of Richmond
Richmond, VA