Synthetic Minds | The Race to Live Forever Has a Governance Problem
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The Race to Live Forever Has a Governance Problem
In January, the FDA cleared the first-ever human trial of partial epigenetic reprogramming, a therapy designed to restore aged cells to a younger state.
Life Biosciences, co-founded by Harvard geneticist David Sinclair, will inject patients' eyes with a gene therapy that has already reversed aging markers by 75% in animal models. At the World Governments Summit in Dubai, Sinclair predicted modern healthcare could look obsolete within two decades.
That is the science story. Here is the signal.
Bezos, Altman, and Armstrong are pouring billions into competing programs. The FDA has opened a regulatory pathway. And last September, Xi and Putin were caught on a hot mic musing about biotechnology making humans "live to 150," with Putin later confirming he had launched a state research centre dedicated to defeating aging.
Two leaders who have systematically eliminated term limits, now openly fascinated by eliminating biological ones. Let that sit for a moment.
The institutional scaffolding is forming around the assumption that radical life extension works. But nobody is redesigning the institutions it shatters. Pension systems, career structures, political succession, insurance models, all engineered for 80-year lifespans. What happens when those assumptions break?
And here is where I keep landing: we are repeating the AI pattern. Sprinting on capability. Crawling on governance. I have personally witnessed this cycle across every major technology wave, the power arrives before the principles do.
Let me be direct. I am all for fighting disease and ending unnecessary suffering. But if biology becomes programmable, it becomes hackable. We have spent decades learning that every piece of editable software is a target. Why would editable biology be different?
And consider the deeper question nobody in this space wants to confront. In a world where AI is already displacing human purpose at scale, is living to 150 actually a gift? What exactly are we extending life for if we have not first figured out what meaningful contribution looks like when machines handle most of the cognitive work?
Living longer without living for something is not a breakthrough. It is a sentence.
We are building capability faster than governance. Again. The question is whether this time, we pause long enough to think before the default settings become permanent.
'Synthetic Minds' continues to reflect the synthetic forces reshaping our world. Quick, curated insights to feed your quest for a better understanding of our evolving synthetic future, powered by Futurwise:
1. China's brain-computer interface industry is rapidly advancing. With strong policy support, vast clinical resources, and strategic investment, the country is racing ahead in BCI technology. What does this mean for the future of human-computer interaction? (TechCrunch)
2. In the world of fast food, a new player has emerged: the robot fry cook. Miso Robotics' Flippy is revolutionizing the industry with its AI-powered automation capabilities. (Yahoo!Finance)
3. The rapid advancement of AI has sparked concerns about job displacement and the future of work. Morgan Stanley's recent research report offers a more optimistic view, suggesting that while AI will certainly change the job market, it won't lead to mass unemployment. (Fortune)
4. Air New Zealand has completed the first phase of its Next Generation Aircraft Technical Demonstrator Programme, a four-month electric aircraft trial with US-based BETA Technologies. (TDM)
5. Nokia has launched the Nokia RAN Digital Twin, a wireless network simulation system powered by NVIDIA Aerial Omniverse Digital Twin (AODT). Its new Digital Twin solution is set to revolutionize the way we design and deploy 6G networks. (Nokia)
If you are interested in more insights, grab my latest, award-winning, book Now What? How to Ride the Tsunami of Change and learn how to embrace a mindset that can deal with exponential change.
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Thank you.
Mark
