TED ANKARA COLLEGE / 8-O
Should We Design Tech
Innovations That Increase
Life Expectancy?
Ela Defne ERKAN
30
“The quality, not the longevity, of one’s life, is what is important.”
is a quote said by Martin Luther King JR. This idea states that the
years we spend turning oxygen into carbon dioxide doesn’t matter
as long as we make the most out of it. Still, in the world we live in,
many people occasionally wonder what it would be like to live for a
thousand years, or better, to be immortal, to feel like they can take
back the moments they’ve missed or the ones they’re missing now
just by thinking about this. Why do we do this?
First, this makes us feel like we can decrease our hunger of having
something no rich can buy, ‘time’. We are a very interesting type
of specie, that even thinking about having something makes us
happy. Secondly, our life circle is so limited that every living human
just goes through ‘birth, learning, school, work, work, work’ and
sadly die. Having extra lifespan besides this would be like having
extra holidays for students. And we want that.
What if we had that technology? Well, I think we should not. Just
like any other thing, we will soon, after a couple of hundred years,
get bored with this gift. This sudden change of mind-set can lead
people to suicide or homicide. An additional fact is that even now,
our population has covered all of the world. If people stopped
dying today, there wouldn’t be enough resources for everyone in
a month. Other than this, people’s appearance is something really
important in our century. Women are simply eating makeup to
look good and men are filling their face and hair with products.
Supposing we stopped ageing after we reached the age of sixty
or before starting elementary school. In conclusion, expanding our
lifespan has a long list of problems. We can still feel like we are
living a thousand years though, seize the moment while you can.