Two Birds

We can potentially kill two birds with one stone, as they say.

I can hope to show here to students how philosophy is different from science and answer our question.

What is life extension?

In science they work to extend life. They actually do the things that accomplish this - like work with telomeres. That is science.

Philosophy defines it, draws distinctions at this level, and provides moral and political discussions/answers.

What is life extension even supposed to be? There's no point in working on the science if we don't know. Just to make you live longer? Yes, that's the vulgar commonsense answer. The truth is: this doesn't mean much. What lives longer? Your physical body, including your brain? Or just your brain? And what is the brain. Oops, we don't know.

So do you see why things are needed here (and elsewhere) to define and discuss fundamental issues like life extension.

What is extended? Okay. The answer is: memory and enduring identity. What are these? Memories and a continued self, one that is uniquely "you."

David Hume suggested in the mid 18th Century that we have no way to prove enduring identity. We might have a soul and it feels like we have a soul but it can't be proven. Does this mean that you are the same person in any unique real way from day to day? No. And that's what got him in trouble with Scottish academics and laymen.

Why did Hume say this? Well, he thinks there is no empirical evidence for "self." He also suggests, and this is where he is interesting, that habituation in the human experience accounts for our belief in "self." And that's true. But it certainly doesn't prove there isn't one.

And along comes Reid to show you there is.

Whether you believe Reid or Hume, what is apparent is that these questions underpin life extension. How would we then preserve memories and identity? I don't think we know. But if we get a clear, useful idea what they are, the scientists can do their work and not accidently make another bomb.