Tír na nÓg not so far-fetched any more
In Johnstown school we learned the story of Oisín, the son of Fionn Mac Cumhail, being lured to Tir na nÓg by the beautiful Princess Niamh. We are told that Oisín and Niamh lived there in blissful happiness for 300 years.
Of course, even as children, we knew that was just a story, one of our famous Irish fables, far-fetched… that sort of thing could never happen; or could it?
For a start, we are all living longer than ever before and life expectancy is stretching upwards all the time. Over the last 100 years, vaccines, antibiotics, better nutrition and sanitation have combined to give mankind greater hope of living on into the three figures. The ceists being asked now are how far out can we push this number and how long can the grim reaper be kept at bay.
Already there are many predictions that people born in this century will be able to survive for at least half as long as did Oisín in Tir na nÓg.
At the much photographed military parade in Beijing last month, China’s Xi Jinping, aged 72, turned to Vladimir Putin (also 72) and said; ‘these days they say that 72 is still a child’, to which Putin replied; ‘thanks to biotechnology, human organs can be continuously transplanted and people can live younger and longer and even achieve immortality!’
Xi replied that he’d heard ‘there was a chance of living to 150 this century!’
It was yet another reminder of the many powerful people taking the quest to slow or even reverse the ageing process seriously.
My late Uncle Paddy had a saying about families known for their longevity; ‘Ah sher that crowd could live as long as they liked!’ Well folks, no more than reinventing Tir na nÓg, Paddy could have this one spot on as well.
Philosophers, scientists and tech moguls are now combining their knowledge and resources to this end. The ceist of the moment coming from these powerful people is, ‘why do we accept death?’.
Billions of dollars is being poured into this search for eternal youth. Those on board from computer science backgrounds see death as an engineering problem. They view the human body a bit like a computer chip and compare it with the advances made in that area. One scientist said that the way to go is to first extend life by 20 years and then use the technologies discovered in that time to extend it by another 20 and so on.
California is where the network of foundations and venture capital firms is trying to make this happen. (Surprise, surprise!)
Those of you who are any way squeamish should look away now and rejoin us in the following paragraph!
Scientists have found that if you stitch an old mouse and a young mouse together (you were warned!) so that the circulatory systems are joined, the old mouse is rejuvenated. A genetically modified mouse lived for five years, the equivalent of around 180 in human terms. That is Putin’s preferred method – organ transplants. The theory is that you keep on replacing body parts. And we’ll leave that one there, apart from saying that there are cranks involved in this area of human endeavour.
There are now thousands of ‘longevity clinics’ around the world and a network of wealthy ‘believers’ doing it for themselves. The best known of these committed life prolongers is Bryan Johnson, who made billions from selling his platform company to Pay Pal. Johnson heads a movement called ‘live forever’. He spends a quarter of a million dollars a year in pursuit of his goal. My hunch is that Bryan Johnson is like the woman at the concert who spends all her time trying to video the event, or the guy at the football match doing the same. The enjoyment of watching the concert or match is lost, and I fear it will be the same story with Bryan and life.
And before you are tempted to put your life savings into trying to extend that life, spare a thought for Fereidoun M Esfandiary. This gent changed his name to FM-2030, as that would be the year when he would reach his goal of living to be 100. He died of pancreatic cancer in 2000, aged 69. Not to be denied, the bould FM, had his body frozen in liquid nitrogen for future revival.
Our old friend, ‘the law of unintentional consequences’, comes into play here. How will pension funds survive? What will our children think of this hanging on and living two lifetimes in one lark? Not to mention grandchildren, great-grandchildren, great-great grandchildren, great-grrr …?
Oh God… I am losing the will to live!
Don’t Forget
Oh Lord protect us from short puck-outs and from goalies trotting the length of the field to do a forward’s job of hitting a penalty.