This is a fascinating study on longevity. You have a great style in getting your ideas across. How can we make sure that people are not abusing telomere lengthening? What do you think about the statement made in the video: we have control over the way we age?
Thanks, I appreciate that. I think that the matter of preventing the abuse of this technology on provincial and federal levels would be closely tied to the rest of our healthcare system, we’d need to regulate it in the ways we regulate other medical technologies. I think that regulating such a technology on a global scale would be much more complicated, for example, dictators could restrict access to the tech in their countries while only allowing themselves to use it, lengthening their reign and putting others at an even greater disadvantage. In this case, I think we’d have to treat it with extreme caution, to ensure equality, we’d need to be very careful. Even today, lifespans are much longer in richer countries, adding this new technology would likely increase that gap. If in some of the poorest countries like Sierra Leone, people can’t even get the base care for a fever or cold, well we can’t expect them to have access to a life lengthening medical technology.
I also think that the idea we have authority over our own lifespans is an important and powerful one, it provides an even stronger case for putting more emphasis on our mental health than we currently do. When our levels of stress and anxiety affect how long we can live, we might want to start thinking about viewing those as more important than many of us do now. I hope though, that this idea doesn’t shame people for feeling bad, we all feel sad, or angry, or stressed at some point and they’re all human emotions. If people feel as if their unhappiness is killing them, they might fear being unhappy, which turns into a sort of negative feedback loop where we’d feel stressed by accident and stress over that stress, and stress over that stress, and well, you get the point. All this is to say, I think we need to talk more about our mental health in ways that reflect it’s impact on our physical health. This isn’t to say that we should stop talking about mental health in the sense of the ways we feel and experience the world, as those are arguably some of the most important parts of life. I’m just saying we should also be aware of it’s effects on our physical well-being.
Awesome. Thanks! And a very impressive response to my question. Great job bringing up concepts of equity and negative feedback loops which are very important topics to consider.
This is a fascinating study on longevity. You have a great style in getting your ideas across. How can we make sure that people are not abusing telomere lengthening? What do you think about the statement made in the video: we have control over the way we age?
Thanks, I appreciate that. I think that the matter of preventing the abuse of this technology on provincial and federal levels would be closely tied to the rest of our healthcare system, we’d need to regulate it in the ways we regulate other medical technologies. I think that regulating such a technology on a global scale would be much more complicated, for example, dictators could restrict access to the tech in their countries while only allowing themselves to use it, lengthening their reign and putting others at an even greater disadvantage. In this case, I think we’d have to treat it with extreme caution, to ensure equality, we’d need to be very careful. Even today, lifespans are much longer in richer countries, adding this new technology would likely increase that gap. If in some of the poorest countries like Sierra Leone, people can’t even get the base care for a fever or cold, well we can’t expect them to have access to a life lengthening medical technology.
I also think that the idea we have authority over our own lifespans is an important and powerful one, it provides an even stronger case for putting more emphasis on our mental health than we currently do. When our levels of stress and anxiety affect how long we can live, we might want to start thinking about viewing those as more important than many of us do now. I hope though, that this idea doesn’t shame people for feeling bad, we all feel sad, or angry, or stressed at some point and they’re all human emotions. If people feel as if their unhappiness is killing them, they might fear being unhappy, which turns into a sort of negative feedback loop where we’d feel stressed by accident and stress over that stress, and stress over that stress, and well, you get the point. All this is to say, I think we need to talk more about our mental health in ways that reflect it’s impact on our physical health. This isn’t to say that we should stop talking about mental health in the sense of the ways we feel and experience the world, as those are arguably some of the most important parts of life. I’m just saying we should also be aware of it’s effects on our physical well-being.
Can I use this as an example for future students?
For sure, I think that’d be really cool!
Awesome. Thanks! And a very impressive response to my question. Great job bringing up concepts of equity and negative feedback loops which are very important topics to consider.