Oh sweet Jesus, does humanity's narcissism have no limit?
The reasons why this is a bad, stupid fucking idea should be obvious to anyone who sits and thinks about it for more than a minute. There are so many things wrong with this idea that I would hope any right-thinking individual would conclude that it's a catastro-fuck waiting to happen.
Point number 1: There are already too many people. Our planet is already overpopulated to the tune of about 3 billion people. Our resources are already failing to keep up with the large number, meaning we're already seeing huge numbers of people suffering from famine and disease. Increasing the average lifespan by around 70 years is only going to make things far far worse. Pensions won't be the least of it. Food will become an even more limited resource. Oil will be consumed at a faster rate. More perfectly natural wilderness and countryside will have to be concreted over in order to create more living space. In short- we're already strip mining the planet for every possible resource it can give us. The rainforests are going. The North Sea is empty. There's a pile of rubbish the size of Texas floating in the Pacific. Allowing rich westerners (be honest, you know you're average African or Indian ain't going to see this drug) to live to a 150 will only hasten our turning this planet into a barren wasteland.
Point number 2: It doesn't matter if they find a compound that might allow people to live to 150. It's a natural fact that the older you get, the more prone your body becomes to things like cancer, parkinson's disease, heart failure, strokes, etc. Pumping your body full of resveratol may hypothetically let you live longer, but I highly doubt it will reduce your likelihood of dying of a heart attack, or pancreatic cancer. The body cannot operate for over 80 years without becoming susceptible to these sort of things. It's simple wear and tear. A nation of people forcing their bodies to 150 will become a nation of walking cancer targets. Good luck footing the medical bill for that.
Point number 3: Once again, I'll use the word I used a the start of the article: narcissism. That's what this comes down to. We're so arrogant as a species, we can't comprehend the idea that the planet might continue without us. Indeed, the planet would probably be better off without us, considering all that we've done to fuck it up. Through medical means, we've already managed to increase our life expectancies by over double. Why is that not enough? Are we so arrogant as a species that we think one day death itself won't apply to us? We're part of a natural cycle: we're born, we live, and then we die and make room for the next generation.
This new drug is yet another example of the older generation trying to hoard everything they can, and fucking things over for the next generation. It's not enough that you guys fucked the environment already for us, and we'll probably be living in a global greenhouse because of you. Nope, now you've decided you won't even have the common courtesy to shuffle off this mortal coil and at least leave us to our fucked future alone. You guys have fucked things up enough. Stop trying to fuck them up further!
