Eliminating Aging: Motivations, Objections and Counterarguments

Abstract Adult biological aging causes the majority of human death and arguably human suffering. Scientific advances suggest that humanity can directly mitigate aging’s harms and possibly eliminate them entirely, with compelling arguments for doing so, both common-sense arguments and quantitative analyses. However, most of the public and even some in the field are unaware of many of these arguments. In addition, many people intuitively think increased longevity will cause several problems. We review the arguments for mitigating or eliminating aging and show that each of 11 common objections has multiple strong counterarguments. We introduce seven categories of counterarguments and map 43 objection-specific counterarguments into these. Society does not currently fund research on aging and its treatments commensurate with the harm caused or potential benefits to humanity. This review summarizes the compelling benefits of treating aging and dispels the common myths of anticipated negative side effects. This is a preprint of the following chapter: Karl Pfleger, Eliminating Aging: Motivations, Objections and Counterarguments, to be published in an upcoming volume, edited by David Barzilai, Max Rangeley, Regina R. Monaco, and David Wood, published by Springer Nature. It is the version of the author’s manuscript prior to acceptance for publication and has not undergone editorial and/or peer review.