Happy Mind: The Philosophy and Science of Happiness

Fantastic Voyage

Katherine Power reviews Fantastic Voyage: How to Benefit from Cutting Edge Science and Add Years to Your Life by Ray Kurzweil & Terry Grossman.

 

The subtitle sums it up well. The authors believe that, by living an optimally healthy lifestyle, we can increase our chances of living to an old age. Kurzweil & Grossman call this 'bridge one' and, so far, it's all pretty uncontroversial.

 

They then argue that, by living into our 80s and 90s, we should be around to benefit from the biotechnology revolution, 'bridge two'. Science moves on, so it seems reasonable to suppose that new technologies will keep us alive a little (or a lot) longer.

 

Enter 'bridge three': "As we reverse engineer (understand the principles of operation behind) our biology, we will apply our technology to augment and redesign our bodies and brains to radically extend longevity, enhance our health, and expand our intelligence and experiences." Welcome to the world of nanotechology and artificial intelligence! If you make it this far, then Kurzweil & Grossman think you should be able to live indefinitely.

 

Not many, however, look forward to this possibility (well, judging by the not-so-large sample I quizzed at any rate). People seem to find the idea of such a long life unappealing, scary, selfish, in bad taste even. Common objections are: "But isn't the Earth already overpopulated?" and "Won't it be boring to live that long?" I find the first objection more worrying than the second – being around to witness future discoveries and technologies sounds pretty interesting; plus, a century is not long enough to write as many novels as Agatha Christie and finish Ulysses!

 

Kurzweil & Grossman address these concerns on their website. They say that "a common mistake that people make when considering the future is to envision a major change to today's world, such as radical life extension, as if nothing else were going to change." They argue that biotechnology, nanotechnology, and artificial intelligence will come to our rescue, providing the means to meet the needs of a large population, as well as those to clean up the environment from past abuse. Moreover, we will be able to change ourselves, so life shouldn't be dull.

 

Who knows if Kurzweil & Grossman will be proved right or wrong. Meanwhile, there is no harm in living a healthy lifestyle (well, you might miss the iced buns) and Fantastic Voyage is packed with non-dogmatic advice on how to do so, i.e. advice that reflects current scientific findings and encourages us to keep up with health developments, revising the guidelines where appropriate. So, if you fancy a chance to live indefinitely (or just want to keep fit), get drinking that alkaline water and say no to sugar!

 

© Katherine Power 2006.