SATURDAY SALON
It was today. Seven people came. That was a good number. Not too many to fit in my house but enough to debate. I wanted to try to present a range of ideas and information which would feed the debate about how we might live together in a society facing the prospect of prolonged or indefinite human life expectancy – a new Aeon.
Images right: Living Forever, FAME & Aubrey de Grey
Having got the important things sorted out (coffee, croissants, biscuits…) everyone seemed pleased, if slightly surprised, at my plan to start off by watching a bit of telly, and then perhaps a bit perplexed at my first choice of viewing – the clip from Fame where lots of people are dancing on car roofs to Irene Cara’s rendition of “I’m gonna live for ever”. I had thought this would make a good start and that the feelgood factor brought about by all of that youthful vitality would make everyone smile …
Video no.2 was the disconcertingly Messiah-like Aubrey de Grey outlining the “7 deadly things” which cause us to age and die, along with a couple of his theories about how to eliminate cancer and clean up the “cellular garbage that clogs up ageing body tissues”.
Switching off the tv, my 3rd offering was a reading of 3 pages from John Wyndham’s “Trouble With Lichen” in which two of the central characters discuss the conflicting agendas between The Individual and The Institution in a society considering the pros and cons of indefinite lifespan.
By now the Saloneers were warming up. Questions, anecdotes about changing models of living, frowns and worried looks were becoming evident. Time to tie it down a bit. Focus. What I really wanted the Saloneers to do, I said, was to form two groups representing The Individual and The Institution, and to begin to think about what would be the big issues for each group if they were at the forefront of a society facing these huge changes. What rights would The Individuals need to protect for themselves whilst The Institution was beginning to draw up rules that would govern the way society would function in a world where people might live forever?
