First: Black Lives Matter. I don’t think it is my place to say anything more than that, as a pasty white non-American.

When I first found the label ‘Transhumanism’ I latched onto it hard. I fear change, but most of all I fear loss. And what loss could be greater than that of a human life? I do see death as a disease, as transhumanists do. But the label has never quite sat right with me, and in recent reflection I think I have worked out why.

Technology won’t save us. I never quite belived that it would. By that I mean it won’t save us from ourselves. All the shiny rockets in the world won’t stop us from being utter dicks to one another. We might be capable of good, but we are capable of, and tend towards, an awful lot of evil too. If you disagree with any of that, go watch Black Mirror and get back to me.

Transhumanists, on the whole, are obsessed with the newest technologies and in striving for immortality. Every death is a tragedy, that I vehenemently agree with. But I think top down is the wrong way of looking at it. If immortality tech was available tomorrow, I have no doubt it would be the preserve of the ultra rich, and that they would fight to keep it that way. An Altered Carbon (brilliant show) future is all too probable.

So I agree, death is a disease that we should strive to cure - but I disagree with the method. I don’t think that we should start by making rich white people immortal through technology. Fuck that! That sounds awful. Step one towards a world without death is already in our hands, no technology required - in fact, technology tends to make it harder. Step one towards a world without death is to stop fucking killing each other. That’s how I think we should walk towards a world without death - and we should walk, rather than trying to run using bleeding edge technology to halt aging. Humans die at the hands of other humans. Humans die to preventable diseases. Humans die because of lack of water. Water. And those humans certainly won’t be in line for any potential immortality treatments any time soon.

The fact that our time on Earth is cruelly limited is one of the few remaining equalisers between the rich person and the poor person in this increasingly divided world. I no longer think that taking that away ought be done. I would still like to see a world where it happens - but there are bigger problems to solve first. I keep trying to come up with a suitable metaphor, and failing. So just…remember the human. Let’s start by eliminating preventable deaths, before we worry about Jeff Bezos living to be a thousand.

I still believe in the power of technology, but I now have a healthy fear of it too.