The Sept. 2005 issue of Life Extension magazine has an article about Ray Kurzweil and his project to live forever, titled "On Building Bridges to Immortality." You can find it on the Web (requires Adobe) here and here.
Now, in a box about Kurzweil's "Core Principles" (you have to scroll down to find it), Kurzweil recommends,
Follow a detoxification program to avoid environmental toxins and heavy metals.This means eating organic foods, drinking filtered water, and avoiding overexposure to electromagnetic pollution by minimizing the use of computer monitors, hair dryers, electric shavers, and other highpowered electric devices.
This reminded me of my observation about the paradox (or hypocrisy?) of libertarians who buy organic produce for themselves to reduce their pesticide exposure, even though their explicit belief system requires them to defend if not promote unrestricted pesticide use in general. (I don't have to make this up. See here and here and here and here}. Kurzweil's plan sounds like it could have come from a New-Agey neo-Luddite advocate of alternative medicine, like you'd hear on a left-wing Pacifica radio station.
Given Kurzweil's framing of his life-extension plan as a way to take advantage of foreseeable "progress," I have to ask how he can think that future additions to our material culture won't pose risks to his personal health that he'd find unacceptable. If Kurzweil fears industrial pollution, electrical appliances and pesticides, he has already repudiated a great deal of the 20th Century's technological legacy.
For example, how does he know that the full-immersion Matrix he wants to plug into won't do something to interfere with his prospects for longevity? I have the strong suspicion that both his Fantastic Voyage book and the forthcoming one about the Singularity incorporate some seriously flawed thinking about science and survival issues.
