The Class Struggle of Longevity
When observing present society an undeniable feature is inequality. This feature, stemming from the very core of Capitalism flows through many sectors of life and society. Showcasing itself within horrid and needless realities such as the amount of food produced [1] and the 25,000 people who die per day due to hunger [2], the number of vacant homes [3], and the number of homeless people [4], or the one billion people without shoes while civilization produces enough to give three pairs to every human being [5]. Disparities of such exist everywhere within society and are inevitable with the emergence of new industries and fields. Longevity-related industries and fields are no exception.
Nothing is preventing great disparities from emerging within longjevity fields. Serving only to deepen dystopian conditions represented best by the differences in life expectancy of the “haves and have-nots”. This void of impending regulation and overall guarantee of a market approach allows those like the Chairman of the United States Transhumanist Party, a prominent political party within the Transhumanist community, to state “Naturally, the first few customers of these treatments are going to be people who can afford them, i.e., the wealthy. However, this initial stage is quite necessary for the technology to develop and eventually diffuse to the rest of the population. The wealthy individuals who are trying out the technologies at first are actually taking on a rather extraordinary level of risk" [6]. Highlighting nothing escapes the grasp of inequality if left to the market even to the advocates of such a system.
The subsequent implication of this is the wealthy will soon be able to “buy time” through early accessibility to expensive longevity treatments. Leaving the rest of the masses to be killed by their deadliest foe, aging. Which already takes 100,000 people per day [7] with sights of increasing as populations age evermore. Transhumanists and their allies in realizing this impending disparity should work to combat the mechanisms and roots of inequality in an effort to see longevity treatments offered to all people no matter their income levels, race, gender, location, etc.
Unfortunately, with the timeframe presented by none other than Jeff Bezo’s Altos Labs. More specifically, Juan Carlos Izpisua who stated “I am convinced that within two decades we will have tools that not only treat symptoms, but also can predict, prevent and treat diseases and aging through cellular rejuvenation” [8]. The possibility of having a “gods & the useless” situation between the Capitalist class and the Working class in less than 25 years is no longer far-fetched.
The forthcoming situation is seen as a miracle to some, albeit, when looked through a rose-colored lens however for most it's the beginning of a type of society not experienced by any other humans in history. Signified by a couple of handfuls or so of wealthy and powerful individuals receiving longevity treatments thus living on whilst the majority die out in droves. A future that must be rejected and worked against by all Transhumanists!
[3] https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/EVACANTUSQ176N
[5] https://thetricontinental.org/newsletterissue/36-poverty/
[7] https://web.archive.org/web/20161013163622/http://www.sens.org/files/pdf/ENHANCE-PP.pdf