Would you get The Cure?

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[Image is a green cover. It shows a skeleton with a sythe stabbing through it. The cover says "The PostMortal by Drew Magary"]

One of the more recent books I read, The Postmortal by Drew Magary, had an interesting premise that made me think. In the book, there was a “cure” for aging discovered and almost everyone in this book received “The Cure”. They would stay the same age and their organs wouldn’t deteriorate. The planet changes as people are living way longer than they used to. The question is, if the cure existed where you wouldn’t age any longer, would you take it?

I don’t think I would want to receive “The Cure” for aging. I try and take care of my body so that as I age I’m able to use it for longer. In the book, the government eventually goes to extreme measures by sanctioning the killing of elderly people. There’s also a lot more divorce because people enter into what’s called a cycle marriage. Cycle marriages are contracts where each person says they want to be together for 40 years and then divorce to find someone else to marry. I would like to think the person I end up with will be by my side forever, not just as a placement holder.

For the record, I wasn’t the biggest fan of the book for a few reasons. The main character was annoying and the book moved too slowly for me. I will say I did like some of the themes the book presented as to whether or not we deserve the right to live forever. I look at Wolverine as another good example of this. He has lived through decades, but he isn’t happy because he has seen everyone he cares about perish while he has to suffer through his life. That’s not a life worth living.

Even though I didn’t like this book, it allowed me to be able to read something that I normally wouldn’t have. Let me know in the comments whether you would receive the cure for aging if it ever became available.

5 thoughts on “Would you get The Cure?”

  1. Here is an interesting counter – A cure for aging doesn’t necessarily mean a cure for death, which I am assuming the cure in the book does? Under those terms, a cure for aging is quite appealing as I would like to maintain what vigour and health that I have for as long as possible, which in my specific case might not be as easy as for someone else. If there was a cure for death attached, I don’t know. Part of me says yes I would as there are so many things that I would like to do and I am not sure a lifetime is necessarily enough. But on the other hand, a cure for death being universally available (which I believe are the only circumstances by which I would gain access) poses other questions, including how do we support the population? If people don’t die, they don’t retire so what jobs do folks get? And what about the folks in a job. The people at the top are never retiring, so promotion from within will quickly become impossible and finding a new job would be equally impossible given everyone else looking for work and no one able to move. I wasn’t sure where I was going when I started this comment, but I suspect for many an immortality pill might constitute a poison pill for many introducing them to a living, unending hell. Of course that is dependent on everyone getting. If you don’t have everyone getting, then you end up creating a new immortal elite, which sounds like a really cool name for a video game or something but not something you’d wish to live under.

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  2. I would, because it’s a cure for aging, not for dying. So, technically, I could live 100 or more years happily young :p It means that I could take care of myself without needing to bother anyone, and also being productive. Of course, if you have a car accident and you end up crippled you might need help, but you can overcome that depending on the type of accident. So, I would certainly want to be young until the end and enjoy this ride called life, being independent and not bothering anyone 🙂

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