Charles Murtaugh sees what he thinks is a contradiction between Ron Bailey and his Reasoned colleague, Jacob Sullum.
One way or another, passive smoking, and the anti-tobacco laws that it engenders, highlights an interesting contradiction among contemporary libertarians. On the one hand, folks like Ron Bailey relentlessly hype life- extension research, and denounce anti-techies like Leon Kass for opposing it. On the other hand, other folks like Bailey’s Reason colleague Jacob Sullum mocks the rationale behind smoking bans. But put them together, and what do you have? If we think we might live forever, or even for a good chunk longer than we do now, small risks like passive smoke suddenly loom much larger, and smoking bans, e.g., become a lot more, well, reasonable.
No, what becomes more reasonable is not smoking bans, but freedom to choose, including the freedom to choose to go to a restaurant or bar that allows smoking (and perhaps thereby also choose a shorter life), or the freedom to choose not to frequent such places, and thereby hope to extend one’s time on earth (albeit perhaps less enjoyably–that’s a subjective thing). While there may be a contradiction between smoking and immortality (at current technology levels), there’s no contradiction inherent in allowing individuals to make their own choices, which is what “free minds and free markets” is all about. I can’t imagine Ron and Jacob getting into any arguments about this, because there’s no true contradiction.
Charles also writes:
I’ve teed off on our prospects for immortality time and again, and I won’t rehash my arguments. I feel pretty safe predicting that we won’t see radical life extension (e.g. past 150 years) in our own lives, let alone thermodynamically-infeasible immortality, but leaving the science aside I think we’re already living with the negative side effects of dreaming of immortality. (Immortality in this life, that is.) The greatest of those negative side effects is the imagined magnification of miniscule risk factors, such as passive smoke, acrylamide in our potato chips, or radioactive waste. If we live to be 80, sure, those won’t matter much, but what if we live to be 500? The char on that overcooked burger could make all the difference!
Frankly, I find this absurd.
Charles seems to think that long life, if it happens at all, will only be a result of clean living. The reality is that it will almost certainly involve reengineering and continual repair of the human (or post-human) body. Any technology that is capable of this will find repairing damage from second-hand smoke and overcooked protein, or even radiation damage, a relatively trivial task.