IMMORTALITY
Catastrophic thinking requires analyzing any policy in terms of unintended consequences. No single policy is more relentlessly pursued without giving a thought to its unintended consequences than the foolish quest for immortality. We all want to live forever and fully support medical research to prolong our lives. Yet this policy will have far reaching negative consequences to society, and indeed civilization itself, if we are able to extend our lives for hundreds of years. Most of us assume that if we became immortal, we would still retire at 65, completely destroying the assumptions upon which social security and your pension is based. For example, concepts of retirement would become an anachronism and instead we would have to keep working to fund it. Social security would just become an entitlement for people with permanent disabilities. We would all have to work until we became disabled, for social security to be solvent. Eventually, we would all become disabled at some point.
Child-bearing would also be seriously affected as we no longer had to replace ourselves. Things like freezing eggs or sperm would have to be outlawed because unregulated procreation would be contrary to the best interests of society. Indeed, marriage itself would be replaced with enforced sterilization. Only a handful of people would be allowed to procreate under carefully-supervised conditions to avoid any undesirable birth defects. Think about immortality for the retarded, criminals, or the mentally ill. Think about immortality as a disabled or blind person.
We haven’t even considered the issue of who benefits from medical care leading to immortality. Would it only be allowed in the developed world and denied to those living in the Southern Hemisphere? More troubling is what if it is only available to elites like the rich or political rulers.
Other demographic concerns would be the scarcity of food, energy, opportunities, places to live, freedoms, and wealth itself. Medical care would have to be rationed. Imagine a world where you might live until you die in an auto accident or plane crash. Or more likely in a war due to the stresses brought on by so many people crowded together.
You know what I think is ironic? If everyone is faced with immortality, the percentage of population that would end up dying by committing suicide (within their extended life spans) would rise.