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Nov 2, 2017

Why Eradicating Age-related Diseases is Unlikely to Create Immortal Dictators

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, life extension

Why eradicating age-related diseases through rejuvenation biotechnology is probably not going to result in ever-living tyrants.


Suppose there was a country ruled by an evil dictator. Further, suppose the entire world was plagued by a terrible disease affecting 100% of the population. The disease isn’t infectious, but it is congenital. It progresses extremely slowly over the course of several decades, but it eventually ends up severely impairing one’s quality of life, and it is always fatal; it’ll take its own sweet time to kill a patient, but it always will, and it isn’t going to be fun.

If it was suggested that a cure for this disease should not be developed so that we could be sure the aforementioned dictator will eventually pass away, would you agree? Would your answer change if you lived in that country?

If I had to bet on your answers, my money would be on “no way” for both questions, and your reasons would probably be not too different from mine below.

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