X-Message-Number: 18100 From: "Mark Plus" <> Subject: Fwd: FUTURIST UPDATE December 2001 Date: Thu, 06 Dec 2001 18:42:31 -0800 >From: >To: undisclosed-recipients:; >Subject: FUTURIST UPDATE December 2001 >Date: Tue, 4 Dec 2001 17:46:57 -0500 (EST) > >*************************************************** >FUTURIST UPDATE >News & Previews from the World Future Society >December 2001 >*************************************************** > >IN THIS ISSUE: >* Immortality: Pro and Con [snip] > >IMMORTALITY: PRO AND CON > >Increasing the human life-span by 10 years could add as many as 2.5 >billion more people to the world's population. Increasing average life >expectancy to 180 years over the next century would overwhelm the world >with an eventual population of 35 billion, argues Donald B. Louria, >M.D., of the New Jersey Medical School. Well, new generations will have to get out of the way to make room for immortals! > >On the other hand, curing the diseases and disabilities that keep us >from reaching or extending our potential life-spans could be an >enormous economic boon, saving on medical expenses and insurance >pay-outs and adding years of human productivity. One study found that >reducing death rates from either cancer or heart disease in the United >States would be worth some $10 trillion, notes Ronald M. Klatz, M.D., >president of the American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine. This prudential-utilitarian sort of argument fortunately may prove more effective in winning "official" support for radical life extension than the purely moral one, that a life rightly lived can never be rightly terminated. People understand tangible incentives like saving money better than they do abstractions like ethical norms. > >The pros and cons of antiaging medicine and the efforts to achieve >virtual immortality are argued eloquently by Louria and Klatz in the >January-February 2002 issue of THE FUTURIST, mailed to subscribers >after December 12. ORDER: http://www.wfs.org/futuristorder.htm. > >Dr. Klatz will also be speaking at WorldView 2002: Futures Unlimited! >in Philadelphia next July. For the latest conference information, go to >http://www.wfs.org/2002mainpg.htm _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=18100