In my latest issue of TIME magazine they have a special series of articles entitled, “10 Ideas That Are Changing The World.” One of those articles coins the term “amortality” referring to the increased desire and ability to prolong life and the appearance of life (ie. plastic surgery). Overall, the article didn’t interest me that much but it made mention of something that caught my interest. The Methuselah Foundation and the Mprize.
The Methuselah Foundation is dedicated to “extending healthy human life” and one way it stimulates research in that area is through the Mprize (aka the Methuselah Mouse Prize). The Mprize is given to the researcher who can produce the oldest-ever laboratory mouse. Read all about the Mprize here. I found the concept utterly fascinating. The latest winner was Andrzej Bartke, who produced a mouse that lived to 1819 days.
The research is fascinating and the possibility of extending human life is tantalizing, but I would like to be able ask that mouse how pleasant his extra time was. How much longer do we really want to live? Hmmm… interesting philosophical ramifications behind that question.
If you could live indefinitely, would you? I’m sure it would depend on whether everyone else could also live indefinitely with you or not. And on what you’d be able to do with yourself. And would we be willing to make the sacrifices connected with the increase in population due to decreased mortality rate? Interesting questions, but I’m sure it’ll become a moot point before we attain the technology to make it an issue.
