That "human" thing (was Re: [extropy-chat] Bad Forecasts!)

[Brett Paatsch]

Emlyn wrote:

> > > It is also possible that
> > > human lifespans will not exceed 123 years (though I think that is
> > > unlikely and turns on the definition of human).
> > >
> >
> > Baring apocalypse, that's unlikely. Are you basing this on the Hayflick
limit?
>
> Oops, answered this bit out of context, apologies.

No apology necessary. And no I wasn't basing this on the Hayflick limit.

I'm a stem cell campaigner. I learnt to recognize how important language
can be when I heard Senator Brian Harradine of Tasmania trying to
corral some of Australia's leading scientists into an admission that an
embryo is a human being. Human because what other form of life would
it be - its clearly alive, and "being" because it exists.

Harradine didn't nail the scientists (on that occassion) but a lot of less
politically savvy folk do get nailed. And frankly they deserve too if they
go into a political charged environment like embryonic stem cell research
and they haven't got straightened out in their own minds that human life
does in fact take place on a number of levels, including the cellular one.

A cancer cell can be a human life. Heck if it is alive and a human cancer
cell it is a form of human life.

Clearly all forms of human life are not equivalent even morally even by
the standards of people who have an essentially conservative Christian
worldview.

So my point above way not that some decedents of folk that call
themselves humans will not at some stage have lifespans of greater than
123 years. I suspect that they will - but it will not be easy to get to that
either scientifically or politically.

To get there politically I think we will need to hone the terminology we
use better or we will not be able to have the enabling (and necessary)
debates.

By the time life spans of 123 years are generally expected I suspect the
term "human" may have fallen into disuse. It may have needed to to enable
the ethical discussion of rights and responsibilities of persons in society
to move onto the next level.

Regards,
Brett Paatsch