How will you spend your 100th birthday? Today, the average life expectancy for a Polish male is 73 years and for a Polish female – almost 81 years. And it keeps increasing. The question remains as to whether the price for each successive candle on a birthday cake will not turn out to be too high? Where does the limit for life extension run? Or maybe the solution lies in the technology that will provide us with digital immortality? Responsible thinking about the future requires us to create various potential scenarios.
Immortality has tempted humans for thousands of years, we can even read about it in the Sumerian Epic of Gilgamesh. Today, the myth has been replaced by fascination with modern medicine. In trying to decipher why each individual ages at their own pace, doctors and biologists go as deep as to the level of a single cell and steering of its metabolism processes. Whether we are talking about a specific gene variant, a drug for diabetes or molecules found in young blood, each newly discovered element of this puzzle raises new questions instead of bringing us closer to solving the mystery of the old age. However, a limited validity date of the human body doesn’t seem to discourage transhumanists. Enthusiasts of engineered evolution predict a rapid progress in the field of regeneration of organs and development of other molecular therapies, thanks to which we will be able to live 200 or more years. And if that is not enough, there will always be an option of uploading the brain and copying consciousness onto the computer. However, is quantity more important than quality? Does longer life bring along the promise of happiness or rather a threat of new social divisions? Who will benefit from those miraculous treatments in the future? Are we facing the risk of overpopulation and, in consequence, depletion of natural resources?
Even if we put aside our dreams of the Methuselah age, the increase in the average life expectancy and ageing of societies are both simple facts. That is why, as every year, the Przemiany Festival initiates a debate on the future of social life and the impact of new technologies on its structure. By tempting our rational minds with the vision of immortality, we will pose questions about the participatory character of health care and paths to innovation in the medical sector. We will look at longevity as a new paradigm of our culture not only in the context of development of genetics or molecular biology but also from the perspective of long-living populations which prove that life expectancy also depends on limiting stress, on a healthy diet and good relations with the family.
An American writer, Susan Ertz, once said: “Millions long for immortality who don’t know what to do with themselves on a rainy Sunday afternoon”. To dispel your doubts as to what to do during the next one hundred years or so, we invite you to spend the first September weekend with us, at the Copernicus Science Centre.
Future cannot be predicted but it can be shaped. The participants of the Przemiany Festival organised by the Copernicus Science Centre will have a chance to get convinced that we all have the power to create the future.
We are interested in the creative power of humans that may change the world. We are limited only by our imagination. In order to develop it, we need to go beyond the borders of specialisations. For this reason, the festival combines science, art, design and new technologies. The programme of the event, which includes exhibitions, discussion panels, workshops, concert, theatre play, makes it possible for the partici¬pants to confront different ideas and points of view, encouraging them to critically reflect on the directions of the development.
The protagonists of the Przemiany Festival are active in various fields of life. Their projects show their passion and willingness to change the existing reality. Because if you want to create, you need to know the reason for this.