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Immortality

The curse of immortality: Why anti-aging technology would spell disaster for humankind

Wednesday, July 19, 2006
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
Editor of NaturalNews.com (See all articles...)
Tags: immortality, anti-aging, life extension


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There's a lot of talk about anti-aging research today, but with all the promises of longevity and even immortality, almost no one has apparently considered the consequences of human beings living forever. The more you think about it, the scarier the idea becomes.

Think of the people who currently hold power in medicine, pharmaceuticals, media or government. Imagine if they never died. In fact, if you think about it, one of the best things about some people is the fact that they will eventually be six feet under. Actually, that's true for us all. One of the greatest attributes of the human race is that it gives birth to itself anew with each successive generation. Living, growing, learning and then dying is all part of a natural process that keeps the species healthy and adaptive. That's why death is programmed into our very cells, so that we can get out of the way and make room for the next generation.

Science would never have advanced if the old-school high priests of science lived forever. And society as we know it today will never move forward unless the cronies currently in power someday keel over and die (harsh, but true). This is why I say a civilization that could give its population the ability to live forever would be doomed to eternal stagnation. Mortality is an important component of any successful species.

Immortality would halt the advancement of civilization

To see why, consider this thought experiment: Imagine if there were an aging vaccine that cost $100, and you could go to the doctor's office and get injected with it, and then would never age another day, even if you live forever. A huge percentage of the population might avail themselves of this aging vaccine, but before long, we would start to have a real population problem in the world because new people are being born all the time, but suddenly almost no one is dying of old age. Before long, it would become apparent to all of the adults in society -- that is, those who have attained immortality -- that the fixed resources on the planet Earth can only support a fixed a number of people, therefore, to support the lives of all of those already there, they will have to limit new births.

You can see where this is going. With the limitation of new births, we would stop bringing new blood and new ideas into our civilization. All the immortal old people would hang around forever, consuming all the resources and passing new laws to restrict births even more. Meanwhile, their outdated ideas, beliefs and power monopolies would never go away, either. That, you see, would be a genuine curse for all humanity.

Why? Because it is the rebirth and re-culmination of new ideas, new genetic combinations and new philosophies that give us any hope of improving things in the future. If we, as a civilization, continue to do things the way they have always been done, we're not going to get any different results. Extending our collective lifespan to infinity is certainly not going to mean our quality of life is any better, or that our chances of survival as a species on this planet are any greater.

The quest for immortality is fraught with peril at many levels. People love the romantic idea of living forever, but they fail to consider the consequences of what might happen to our species if, indeed, immortality was cheap and attainable by the masses.

Fortunately, anti-aging technology is exceedingly difficult to master, and I don't see any practical applications of an anti-aging vaccine in our lifetime. It doesn't mean I'm against the concept of anti-aging as most people think of it, which simply means staying active and healthy into the later years of life. I'm all for that because it enhances quality of life, but in no way does it make people immortal. At the same time, I genuinely believe that if genuine "live forever" technology were unleashed on the world today, it would be disastrous for humankind.

Our best hope for the future is that we each learn something useful, pass it on to the next generation, then get out of the way to make room for new people with new ideas who can hopefully do a better job protecting this planet (and its people) than we did. Dying is not only an important natural cycle, it's also the most important thing that will ever happen to many individuals in positions of power today. Have you noticed, for example, how most members of Congress are now senior citizens who are completely out of touch with the people they claim to represent?

Mortality is the ultimate term limit.


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About the author:Mike Adams (aka the "Health Ranger") is a best selling author (#1 best selling science book on Amazon.com) and a globally recognized scientific researcher in clean foods. He serves as the founding editor of NaturalNews.com and the lab science director of an internationally accredited (ISO 17025) analytical laboratory known as CWC Labs. There, he was awarded a Certificate of Excellence for achieving extremely high accuracy in the analysis of toxic elements in unknown water samples using ICP-MS instrumentation. Adams is also highly proficient in running liquid chromatography, ion chromatography and mass spectrometry time-of-flight analytical instrumentation.

Adams is a person of color whose ancestors include Africans and Native American Indians. He's also of Native American heritage, which he credits as inspiring his "Health Ranger" passion for protecting life and nature against the destruction caused by chemicals, heavy metals and other forms of pollution.

Adams is the founder and publisher of the open source science journal Natural Science Journal, the author of numerous peer-reviewed science papers published by the journal, and the author of the world's first book that published ICP-MS heavy metals analysis results for foods, dietary supplements, pet food, spices and fast food. The book is entitled Food Forensics and is published by BenBella Books.

In his laboratory research, Adams has made numerous food safety breakthroughs such as revealing rice protein products imported from Asia to be contaminated with toxic heavy metals like lead, cadmium and tungsten. Adams was the first food science researcher to document high levels of tungsten in superfoods. He also discovered over 11 ppm lead in imported mangosteen powder, and led an industry-wide voluntary agreement to limit heavy metals in rice protein products.

In addition to his lab work, Adams is also the (non-paid) executive director of the non-profit Consumer Wellness Center (CWC), an organization that redirects 100% of its donations receipts to grant programs that teach children and women how to grow their own food or vastly improve their nutrition. Through the non-profit CWC, Adams also launched Nutrition Rescue, a program that donates essential vitamins to people in need. Click here to see some of the CWC success stories.

With a background in science and software technology, Adams is the original founder of the email newsletter technology company known as Arial Software. Using his technical experience combined with his love for natural health, Adams developed and deployed the content management system currently driving NaturalNews.com. He also engineered the high-level statistical algorithms that power SCIENCE.naturalnews.com, a massive research resource featuring over 10 million scientific studies.

Adams is well known for his incredibly popular consumer activism video blowing the lid on fake blueberries used throughout the food supply. He has also exposed "strange fibers" found in Chicken McNuggets, fake academic credentials of so-called health "gurus," dangerous "detox" products imported as battery acid and sold for oral consumption, fake acai berry scams, the California raw milk raids, the vaccine research fraud revealed by industry whistleblowers and many other topics.

Adams has also helped defend the rights of home gardeners and protect the medical freedom rights of parents. Adams is widely recognized to have made a remarkable global impact on issues like GMOs, vaccines, nutrition therapies, human consciousness.

In addition to his activism, Adams is an accomplished musician who has released over a dozen popular songs covering a variety of activism topics.

Click here to read a more detailed bio on Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, at HealthRanger.com.

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