I choose life.

There is a small probability that I may not live to see tomorrow. There is a chance that I inherit a genetic disease and at the age of 50 I encounter inevitable health challenges. Heck, the odds of making it past the age of 85 don't seem to be stacked in my favor. I acknowledge the I cannot see that far into my future, thus I attempt to live my life day by day knowing that I am not invincible. But I still dream... that it is plausible that I will live indefinitely. And guess what? I want the same for you.

There is this romantic Kantian notion, that life is defined by its negative space. That every action you commit yourself to is ultimately decided and made meaningful in light of our ultimate destination. The thought that acceptance of our death ignites a flame and sets us in motion to achieve something before our time is up. And that if we had a longer lifespan, lets say 200 years of disease-free living for the sake of argument. That our urgency to live a life of purpose would somehow fade away.

I argue against the notion that "lifespans are long enough". And I suspect that many young people today would agree with me. But why? Is it that todays material based society has become vacuous and without meaning? That many of us feel unfulfilled and want to postpone the inevitable as long as possible to find some semblance of happiness? Is the desire to live forever somehow a selfish desire? I think the answer is simple, we are at a point in our history where we have the choice. Whereas other animals cannot alter their life expectancy like we can with advanced healthcare, superior hygiene, and better food choices. Saying lifespans are long enough, is like saying "you don't deserve to live past a predetermined age x". But who are we to determine what others want? Who are we to say how long the lifespans of future generations of human beings are. Who are we to limit scientific progress in the realm of age extension technologies? After all if you don't want to live longer you can simply avoid making certain lifestyle choices and avoid taking the eventual therapy required to extend lifespan.

The pro-death crowd will argue "overpopulation", without realizing that the rate of birth is a quadratic growth, which has a far greater effect on population than the rate of death which is linear. In most developing countries birth rate is decreasing, and I would assume with an aging population less people would be having kids effectively leading to zero-population growth. The pro-death crowd will argue that the greater number of old people will create a burden on the health care system without realizing that the goal is not to keep people sick and tired longer, but to keep them young and healthy longer. The pro-death crowd could respond by arguing that this will only widen the gap between the rich and poor, without realizing most of health care costs involve degenerative diseases caused by aging. If we could reduce or reverse the effects of metabolism, effectively combating aging and managed to reduce these diseases by 90 percent. We could save tremendously on health care costs and provide free anti-aging therapy to the population.

"AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA" the naysayer will say. "That is a pipe dream, your just smoking hella weed there is no way we would provide something like that for free! Are you crazy!?" Oh but before curling into the fetus position and crying myself to sleep in a ball of defeat. I have one last line of defense. What about all these free services...

• sanitary water
• libraries
• public education
• health care (Canada and Europe, sorry America)
• welfare
• parks
• clean needles

With enough vision one can easily see how in the future where the needs of the people are met with increasing ease and efficiency due to technological progress, we can afford to make lives longer and better without cost to the individual.

It is not fun seeing relatives or strangers grow old and sick. It is no great life to be kept afloat in a nursing home or a hospital bed. I know of the Buddhist principle of impermanence and eventually all things will end in entropy; the eventual heat death of the universe or something equally as dismal and sad. These facts are unavoidable. But I am not arguing to extend life for no reason, I am arguing that life is worth living as long as possible. I want to see us explore the stars. I want to experience the amazing transcendental worlds created in virtual reality. I want to see artificial general intelligence eventually evolve into a super-intelligence in the supposed technological singularity and change the world in ways unimaginable to even the brightest minds today. I want you to see it too.

Here is an excerpt from the poem by Dylan Thomas, remember these words.

"Do not go gentle into that good night.

Rage, rage against the dying of the light."

Do what you can, fight even, for your right to have a life as long and healthy as possible because its all you have and all you ever will have.