The current IEET reader poll asks: If you could be any age you desired, for as long as you chose, would you opt for it? To answer, we may have to consider whether we most value quantity, quality, or meaning in life.
It won’t be long, presumably, before humans will be able to extend their lifespans by 50%, 100%, or perhaps even indefinitely. If you value quantity more than anything, meaning that you’re most interested in maximizing your learning, your experiences, and your opportunities, it seems obvious that you would want to live as long as possible.
In our poll we’ve qualified the question of life extension by saying you would have the option of being any age you desired, meaning you could have the health, vigor, and mental acuity of, say, a 28 year-old for as long as you wanted (barring accident or homicide). But would you answer the same way if adding years to your life simply meant a prolonged period of middle age, or even old age? For some hyper-curious people—like me—those extra years might still be worth it, if only just to see what happens in the coming centuries. For others who value quality more than quantity, the answer might be different.
Everyone has their own definition of ‘quality’. For you it might mean closeness with family or other loved ones; for some it might be the ability to enjoy richness, whether in food, comfort, entertainment, intellectual stimulation, or something else; and for some it might be strictly hedonistic indulgence in drugs, sex, or other pleasures they most enjoy.
Of course, there is wide blurry line between quantity and quality. I could argue that simply gaining more experience and more learning by living longer would add great quality to my life, even if some of the later decades are spent in increasing infirmity. You might counter that growing old in body and spirit is not worth it if that means sacrificing some of the activities that bring quality to your life. And then we get to the question of meaning.
Most of today’s intellectuals likely would say that the ‘meaning’ each individual gives to his or her life is a personal, subjective choice. Although a small percentage of scientists and other educated professionals around the world profess belief in God (or some other form of higher power), the large majority are either atheist or agnostic. This, of course, stands in stark contrast to the general population in the United States (but not in Europe), and to much of the developing world. But just because you or I may not accept the idea that human life or the universe as a whole has any intrinsic meaning or purpose, that does not mean we cannot assign meaning to our own individual lives.
In accepting this premise, we are then challenged to decide whether it is quantity or quality (or something else?) that contributes most to the realization or self-actualization of whatever meaning we’ve chosen for our lives. On the other hand, you may be so unwilling to accept the premise that life can have any meaning that you choose to devote your efforts entirely to maximizing either quality or quantity. I’d be interested to hear how some of our IEET readers have worked out these questions for themselves.
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