In Search Of Immortality
I gave up routine practice of medicine many years ago. The causes were many, some of which the reader will recognize from wailing physicians – regulations, insurance, malpractice, paperwork. But there is an underlying issue that few will talk about.
Twenty years ago, I was sitting in a lecture hall at Baylor College of Medicine. It was noon and though October had bought some respite from Houston’s heat and humidity, the air-conditioned room was still very inviting. To top it, there was lunch, always welcome to a resident on the run. Though the lunch came with a rider – sitting through Grand Rounds – the topic was interesting, and I welcomed the occasion to get off my feet for the next hour. With the pharmaceutical industry sponsored sandwich, diet coke and cookie, I settled down to learn about reducing cardiac mortality in the next century.
The talk got off with a bang from the beginning. The speaker was passionate and animated, and if he was running for office, I’m sure I would have been tempted to vote for him. With a missionary zeal, he outlined his vision of how mortality from coronary artery disease as well as other cardiac diseases could, and should, be eliminated. The vision was detailed, the ideas underlying them quite ambitious, if not outright grandiose. By the time the speaker was done, I was sure that in the span of a few decades, humans would be dying from all sorts of diseases with the exception of cardiac disease.
As the talk ended and the speaker was receiving a standing ovation from the hundreds of cardiologists-to-be, beaming from ear to ear, a certain question came into my mind. To be precise, this question had nagged me ever since I entered medical school, but it came into sharper focus by the time the speech was over. The question I wanted to but didn’t ask the distinguished professor was: what is the ultimate goal of medical care? What is the ultimate goal of the medical profession? Is the goal to prolong life? If humans didn’t die from cardiac diseases, as the professor wanted, what would we die from? Would we all die from cancer? I could imagine the friendly oncologist sitting next to me erupting at the idea. Cancer – surely not! She would conquer cancer just as the cardiologist would surmount cardiac disease. And the infectious disease specialist sitting next to her would feel the same way about AIDS and other infections plaguing humanity.
So, by the time all specialties had their say, in a few decades, we would have conquered death. We would be immortal. And then what? Would we be happy and peaceful as a species? Would there be no more sorrow or strife? Lots of sickness, but no death. It would be bad for the undertakers but great for everyone else.
Or would it?
I began to imagine what it would be like to be immortal. I would wake up in the mornings at age, let’s say, 150, and know that for the rest of my life, I’d do the same thing over and over again. Wait a minute – what do I mean rest of my life – I should say eternity, shouldn’t I?
Rewind, replay – I would wake up at age, let’s say, 150, and know that for eternity, I’d do the same thing over and over again. After all, even Earth, with all its attractions, could not provide surprises to a person forever. So, after having explored all entertaining avenues and vistas for the past 50 years, I would begin to go bored. And look forward to spending eternity doing more or less the same things over and over again. How would that feel? How would it feel, to be immortal? How would it feel to live for 800 years, 1200 years, or even more? How would it feel to be married to the same person for 200 years, 400 years, or maybe even more? It would be great, wouldn’t it? Wouldn’t it? And friends – if old friends, like old wine, became better with age, we are talking serious vintage here. Humans have had quite a time since the industrial revolution. Our social fabric and moral underpinnings have been severely strained by the advances in technology and science. Just within the last two centuries, life expectancy has doubled, with all sorts of unforeseen consequences. Elder abuses, abandonment, bankruptcy, nursing homes – these concepts are not entirely new and we are still struggling with them. What kind of consequences would immortality affect it? How well would we adapt to it?
My reverie was interrupted by some prosaic and practical concerns – who and what would pay for my immortality? Let’s say I had retired around age 100 and had been living for the past 50 years off my savings. Those savings would have gone by the end of 50 years. The government would have to step in, but deficit spending for over a hundred years would have wiped out Social Security and its ability to sustain my eternal youth. It would have asked me to go back to work.
Go back to work? At age 150? But, without a choice, I would have to do society’s bidding. Subconsciously, I would even have to agree – after all, the concept of retirement couldn’t exist if one is to live forever. One could switch and change professions, but not retire. However; it wouldn’t be easy, since I would have to compete with those a hundred years younger than me. After all, experience beyond a certain level doesn’t help – the law of diminishing returns. In addition, companies wouldn’t hire me since they would have to spend a lot on my health care. You see, eternity does not come cheap. I would have to go for regular check-ups, and when a problem was discovered, a new organ would have to be ordered. Using my pluripotential stem cells, new organ would be grown and the old one replaced with the new one. If the problem were multi-organ, gene therapy or stem cell therapy would take care of the problem. The downside – individualized medicine, while effective, would be very expensive. Unlike pharmaceuticals today, where drugs are relatively cheap since they are mass-produced like Ford Model T, the law of scales would not apply. Politicians complaining about the cost of medicines now would be speechless at expensive health care in a few hundred years.
Another problem I would face is resources. The planet has limited resources – water, land, room for garbage disposal, etc. For example, it is said that the next war in the Middle East will be over water, not religion. Given these constraints, with so many eternals roaming around, there would be a severe crunch on those resources. The population would have quadrupled, while water and land would not. This would mean sky-high prices for houses, traffic jams, rationing of water (maybe an hour a day) and expensive food. Perhaps we would all be vegetarians since most species would have become extinct due to human encroachment of their habitats. Add to that the resentment between age groups, the fight for limited resources and society would begin to look a bit ragged. Similar conflicts in the past led to population migrations and discovery of new continents. Colonizing space by contrast is easier described in sci-fi novels than in reality.
And to that, we have to add the problems between countries. Declining birth rates in European countries and Japan have already led to an immigration influx from so-called developing countries. In addition, the growing economic prowess of countries such as China, Korea, Brazil over the decades would have left the old order of rich European oriented countries dominating the planet in tatters. In a hundred years, Mandarin would be as commonly spoken at airports in London as English is today. And with growing economic might, the struggle for those precious resources would only intensify.
Finally, I wonder about the spiritual aspects of immortality. All religions emphasize that at some stage, a person has to face the consequences of her/his actions. Whether that is at the Pearly Gates or through the dual principle of Karma/Dharma, this fear or factor plays a vital part in maintaining social cohesion. Without it, society may find that policemen may not be enough to maintain law and order. After all, if a person didn’t ever have to face his/her Lord/Dharma, wouldn’t the 10 Commandments and Karmic principles lose their relevance?
Still want immortality?
So, I gave up on clinical medicine and chose an alternative career, building companies and becoming a writer. No immortality for me.