The Inner Monologue

Keynote Address: “Evolutionary and Societal Transformations in Post-Millennial Humanity”
Presented at the Third Millennium Global Symposium on Anthropogenic Futures (Millennium III: Humanity’s Past, Present, and Infinite Future)
Location: Geneva, Switzerland | Date: 3 March 3000

Abstract:
This transcript documents a plenary speech delivered at the inaugural session of the Millennium III conference, a multidisciplinary convening marking the turn of the 3rd millennium CE. The address synthesizes historical, genetic, and sociological perspectives on humanity’s transition from biologically constrained lifespans to a post-aging civilization, with particular emphasis on the 21st-century genomic revolution and its long-term implications for societal structure, temporal perception, and species-wide resilience.

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Any good story of modern humans must begin when we learn to take charge of our evolution. At the beginning of the 21st century, science was just beginning to understand the true nature of our genetic code. As most of you know, modern humans share few traits with our ancestors other than a common genetic history. Evolution through natural selection had done a fair job until then. Still, our command and control of the human genome led to the incredible diversity in modern humankind.  When pondering the greatest single step in our long genetic journey, we must consider mapping the genome and the preceding centuries spent understanding the concept of genetics. However, there can be little argument that the first significant step towards modern human beings occurred in the early part of the twenty-first century when our ancestors first successfully modified their genetic code for the greater good of the species. That first step leads us down a long path to modern humanity.

Humans shared a common trait with nearly all other living species for millennia. We had a built-in limited lifespan. This may have provided some advantage in our early evolution, but it is more likely a vestigial carryover from life’s even more primitive origins billions of years earlier. Whatever the cause, like many other species, once we reach maturity, our bodies almost immediately begin a process of aging that eventually leads to system failure and death. Our species had managed to extend its lifespan from a few decades to nearly a century, but there was no escaping the inevitable fact that our bodies would eventually fail. Even after conquering many diseases, we still struggled to maintain ourselves beyond a century. Even the most robust humans of the day eventually died of what was then termed old age. Humans living for many centuries were the stuff of myth and legend. Our ancestors marveled at humans who cheated the clock to live an extra decade or two. But there was no hope of beating the aging process. Education was complete in the first quarter of a human lifetime. Work and family dominated the middle half, and for those lucky enough to live past six decades, the final quarter of their life was spent in relative leisure. Our ancestors, regardless of status, and assuming they did not perish from some other cause, died of what was given a quaint name, old age or natural causes. 

All of human society was constructed around this timeline. Human achievements were measured in months or years. Only well-organized groups undertook projects spanning decades. Except for some religious construction projects, our species never considered any effort requiring centuries to complete. Our vision was limited to our lifespan. We traveled through time in generations typically defined by the decade in which we were born. And while a typical life might span seven decades, our interactions were usually limited to the generation preceding ours, and the one or two generations that followed. Within a century of an individual’s death, only a few close family friends or descendants were aware of that person’s life. Within two centuries, all but the most famous or infamous lives had vanished into the mist of time. Since the dawn of human beings, there has always been a deep desire to escape the limitations time puts on our bodies. Ancient humans left their marks on rocks and in caves for future humans to discover and know they had existed. Our species desperately needed to find a way of eliminating their built-in mortality. And as we all know, early in the twenty-first century, the key was found that unlocked that door. 

It might be entertaining to read contemporary reports and laugh at the dire predictions our ancestors made when they first discovered how simple it was to turn off the geans that caused them to age and die. But these reactions shouldn’t surprise us. They are similar to how humans have always reacted to fear of the unknown. Modern humans are no different and I am sure you can think of many times when society has predicted catastrophic consequences from some discovery only to look back and realize those predictions couldn’t be further from reality. In the twenty-first century, our species was struggling under the misconception that the Earth was unable to sustain its current population. That human beings were wreaking havoc across the planet and that our species had irrevocably set in motion the ultimate decline and failure of all humankind. Doomsday predictions are still with us today, and perhaps the intuition of our place in the universe is no more accurate than our ancestors so long ago.

The change came quickly once our ancestors determined how to modify the human genome globally. Despite misgivings from some people, the decision was made at some laboratory long lost to history that it was in the best interest of all society to stop the clock that leads to human aging permanently. We don’t know precisely who or when, but we believe how it was done was the same as today. And with similar results. In the time it took an ancient pandemic to sweep across the global human population, genetic modifications were spread to every human being on the planet. Within less than one decade, our species had forever altered its existence on the earth and relative to time. The limit had been lifted from a natural human lifespan. Immortality was the wrong term used at that time to describe the change. Humans were no more immortal then than they are today. We could still die but not from old age.  

Today, while most diseases have been eradicated, we have yet to eliminate from human nature the most common cause of death. The adage holds across millennia, accidents will happen. And as we all know, the modern equivalent of natural causes is human stupidity resulting in accidental death. Our ancestors knew this but didn’t recognize it would become our species’ leading cause of death; eliminating age and the conditions it would bring would make less common causes of death more common. At that time, when humans aged, the average lifespan was just under one century. And while it would take several centuries for a new average to be established, we now know that the first generation of modern humans had an estimated lifespan of about 20 centuries. Because long seated gender-based environmental factors, the first modern women typically outlive their male counterparts by about half a century. However, these factors quickly disappeared, so it is difficult to determine an accurate average lifespan. History books generally say early modern humans increased their lifespan twenty-fold with this one genetic modification.

As students of human history know, the world did not end as predicted by twenty-first-century doomsday prophets. But neither was what followed a panacea. Our ancestors took advantage of their newfound longevity to extend their previous problems. Once most diseases and genetic maladies were eradicated, humans killing humans became the leading cause of death in many populations. Wars were fought to acquire resources in anticipation of shortages that never came. For a short period in our history, it may have seemed this gift of time was a curse of prolonged misery. Some scholars have humorously attributed a wave in procrastination as the most significant contribution to modern humanity. With nearly unlimited time, the urgency is lifted, and serious thought can be applied to serious problems. Some of our most outstanding achievements have only been possible because the greatest minds of our species have had unlimited time to ponder. Thankfully,  while there are still occasional resurgences in procrastination, we have settled into a balanced meter of thought and action.

The first generation of modern humans had some interesting challenges and invented interesting solutions to cope with the new paradigm. While not immortal, the modern human has the potential to live forever, or until something other than age intervenes to end their life. While ingrained in our society, this was an alien concept to our ancestors. The transition from the pre to postmodern lifespan is a fascinating study of human ingenuity. Overpopulation was the predominant fear of first-generation modern humans. Initially, there was concern that without old age culling the population, the world would become overcrowded, leading to starvation and disease. The same epoch of technological advances that eliminated aging also led to increased food production, waste disposal, transportation, communication, and entertainment.

Rather than overpopulate or sprawl, many cities limited their size and population through economic restrictions. The result was the largest growth in the earth’s new cities since the Roman Empire. Cities were founded to appeal to the interests and aspirations of their new populations. There was something for everyone: mountain, coastal, densely urban or open suburban, mini-farms. At its height, it is estimated a new city was founded somewhere on the earth every thirty minutes—one of the more fascinating demographic shifts due to human physiology. While our ancestors had indefinitely extended their lifespan, they could not extend human fertility beyond the first few decades of maturity. This lead to a fascinating social stratification of families with children and families made up entirely of adults. There were towns specifically designed for child-friendly populations. Since children under the age of twenty accounted for less than one percent of the human population, for early modern humans, there was a strange social struggle about where parents and children fit in the broader fabric of society.

Modern society has its roots in our ancestors coping with the prospect of indefinite longevity. Our contemporary model for permanent economic stability didn’t exist when our ancestors first had to envision a life beyond a single century. After childhood and education, our ancestors would undertake four or five decades of work wherein they would hopefully amass enough wealth to spend in the final two decades of their lives. This model no longer worked without predictable mortality.  The solution was a system where people worked until they could retire and then retired until they needed to work. The cycle began alternating forty years of work with 20 years of retirement. And while from our current perspective this may seem odd, for our ancestors if was a functioning system for quite some time.

Just as modern humans have diverged dramatically from our early modern ancestors, so has our society changed into something our ancestors would find totally alien and unrecognizable. Nevertheless, we must always look back and appreciate the struggles and ingenuity of those first modern humans and their immeasurable contribution to who we are today.