Youth Obsession: Aging in the Age of Tech

I typed “anti-aging technology” into Google the other day expecting to find the normal lineup of face creams and serums, laser technology, and microneedling.

None of that came up on the first page of search results. Humans have come a long way in our quest for eternal youth. 

Back in the day, alchemy, a blend of philosophy and proto-science, aimed to transform base metals into gold and unearth the “Elixir of Life.” This mythical potion promised rejuvenation, increased longevity, and even the prospect of eternal life for those who consumed it.

Myths of magical fountains and springs, bestowing rejuvenation and eternal youth weave through many cultures—from China to the Middle East. If you delve into US history, echoes of these tales may ring a bell, such as the 16th-century Spanish explorer Ponce de Leon's pursuit of the legendary Fountain of Youth in Florida. 

Now fast-forward to July 2023: Harvard researchers have discovered a mix of chemicals that could actually reverse aging. In the trials they’ve done, these scientists have reversed cellular aging in the skin cells of mice and humans by several years. The next step is human trials. Eternal youth, among the great mystical quests of humankind, does not seem all that mystical anymore.

This leads me to the question: Will it be possible to reverse the effects of aging on our bodies during my lifetime? Maybe. And what does this mean for me, for us, for society at large? It’s hard for me to fathom.

One of the first things I do when I get up for the day is a morning skincare routine. I begin by massaging my face with a rose quartz roller. Then, I clean my face twice, first with micellar water and then with a witch hazel astringent. I lavish in watching the

dirt accumulate on the cotton pads. Last, I spread a thin layer of ultra-light oil-free moisturizer with SPF 30 and hyaluronic acid over my forehead, nose, cheeks, chin, and neck.

Why do I do this every morning? Because I want my skin to look young. Why do I want my skin to look young? That question has a much more nuanced answer. That question relates to why billionaires invest in anti-aging biotech companies, why this is a quest that’s been going on since the beginning of civilization or perhaps even before. 

Contemplating death, the enigma that lies just and forever beyond life, often evokes fear or at least discomfort. Our desire to maintain a youthful appearance is intricately linked to an inherent avoidance of our inevitable mortality. We want to look young because we want to be young because we don’t want to die. 

We also want to look young because youth, in our society here on Earth, is associated with attractiveness. And while this applies to both genders, it applies more to women.

The media makes women feel like our worth is related to our youth. It’s common for middle-aged women and older to feel invisible because we don’t look young anymore, and that means men (and women) don’t look at us and see beauty. So we use age-defying creams, we get Botox and fillers, some people even get surgery. And maybe soon, sooner than we realize, we’ll be using gene therapy to reverse cellular aging altogether.

I’m 38-going-on-39 right now. I consider myself body-neutral, anti-agist, a feminist through and through. I see beauty in aging women and men. Sure it’s not the same kind of physical beauty I’ve been trained by the media to admire and gawk at, but it’s still beauty. The aging body’s lines and creases and softness urge us to look beyond what’s physical. It reminds us that beauty arrives from invisible places far deeper into consciousness than the eye can see. It’s a more forceful and reaching beauty. 

Yet it’s not always easy to apply my Philosophical Ideas to myself. My body is aging, and this necessitates a certain amount of coping.

I’m body-neutral but I strongly dislike my cellulite—an improvement over hating it, I suppose. I wear shorts and short skirts less than I would if I didn’t have negative feelings about my thigh cellulite. Buying bathing suits is hard for the same reason. Yet it’s so easy to be body-neutral about other aging women in short skirts and bikinis; I don’t have negative, judgmental thoughts about their cellulite. Only mine.

I’m anti-agist, but these days, I consistently dye my hair a lighter blonde than I used to, to hide the grey. I don’t even have that much grey yet, which of course I have to mention here because it makes me seem less old.

On one side of this, I can easily see how foolish and contradictory this is to my own beliefs. “Youthful-looking” is not an important parameter in my life. I choose to spend time with people based on our metaphysical connection, our existential overlap—things that stem from who a person is, not what they look like. Grey hair and wrinkles and age lines are not factors that influence how much I care about someone, obviously. Yet here I am, over here dying my hair to hide the grey, wearing long skirts to hide the cellulite. What am I doing?

The answer to this is the other side, a much darker universe. This is where my fear lives.

Tell me if you’ve had this thought before: my partner could at any moment leave me for a younger woman. And the thought goes on: if this happens, aside from being beside myself in grief, at least I’ll have some scraps of youth left thanks to my trusty skincare routine.

It’s not an irrational fear per se, because society has taught us, especially heterosexual women, that it’s kind of normal for men to leave us for younger women. And while I don’t actually think Omar is going to leave me for someone younger and prettier, and while I have seen no trace of evidence that he’s this type of superficial person, the fear— quietly, dormantly—remains.

I know I’m not alone here. This is a huge motivator for why women put so much effort into looking as young as possible for as long as possible.

As far as the fears associated with aging go, there is more to it than society’s consensus that you’re uglier and less valuable the older you get. There’s also health! As the body slowly starts to shut down, aging also comes with the ever-increasing risk of developing illnesses, ailments, and pain of all kinds. 

And this is where I’m going to swing back around to the Harvard researchers’ work on reversing cellular aging. It isn’t just about making us look younger. It’s about cures for diseases, cures for age-related bodily decline, and more effective treatments for injuries.

For example, it already looks somewhat promising that this technology could cure Alzheimer’s and improve people’s vision on a cellular level. Once it starts eliminating health issue after health issue, does this equate to a longer lifespan? How much longer are we talking? If we start living to be 200 with this technology for reverse cellular aging, are we going to look younger for longer, too?

In 2017, I saw, on YouTube, a commercial advertising some insane futuristic technology. The concept was a “sleeve,” essentially a man-made human body, into which a person could insert their consciousness to expand their life. As I was watching, I remember feeling shocked that something like this could already exist. Then, at the very end of the video, it became apparent that it was an advertisement, not for the “sleeve” technology, but for a then-new Netflix show called Altered Carbon. The technology “advertised” in the video was part of the show. The whole thing was a powerful trick that got me good. 

So good, that when the series aired, I watched it immediately.

By the time I got to the end of the first season, I was existentially spooked. One of the main themes of the show is the ethical catastrophe that is runaway capitalism, and before seeing the season play out, it hadn’t occurred to me how much worse wealth hoarding could get with the possibility of extending the human lifespan. In the Altered Carbon universe, it’s essentially only wealthy people who can afford sleeves, so only wealthy people can extend their lives. The plebeian class’ only real shot at it seems to be taking jobs that require sleeves, sleeves that are provided by their wealthy bosses. This translates to the worker being owned by their boss, as their sleeve, their body, is their boss’ property, not theirs.

The show makes a good point. In our quest to extend the human lifespan, it’s easy to glamorize it, or to not consider the very real possibility that the technology will not be accessible to everyone. Capitalism shows us in our own timeline that this is not the case.

Capitalism is a system of wealth expansion at any cost. Anything that can be monetized will be monetized. For example, the ultra-wealthy already keep access to things like universal healthcare from Americans (even though socialized healthcare would be far cheaper for the government than the private system) because it is how they keep us under their control. They tie health(care) to employment to ensure we stay in jobs despite being underpaid, overworked, and overall mistreated. In the end, the rich make money and hoard more and more wealth through these kinds of systems.

If the workers of the world—anyone who isn’t ultra-wealthy—didn’t have the threat of a medical catastrophe to worry about, more of us would probably seek out different or self-employment, find ways to be productive members of society in ways more suited to our souls. 

Altered Carbon made me realize that under our current system of unfettered capitalism, extending human life would allow billionaires to hoard exponentially more wealth, eventually leading to dystopian levels of uneven wealth distribution and violent class war, in which the poor have no chance of winning.

It’s a sobering perspective to say the least, one that mitigates the excitement I feel about the potentials of anti-aging technology.

Already, we live in a world where access to anti-aging technology depends on wealth. Wealthy people tend to look younger for longer for many reasons, including their ability to afford all the best doctors, all the best procedures, all the best serums, not to mention more time and resources to take care of themselves in the normal ways. Like exercising and eating organic food. Like not having to worry about basic survival needs.

And with all of this, we end up with people like the Kardashian family, women who seem to rely on all available technology to keep them looking young. This leaves the “normal” people of the world comparing themselves to them, comparing others to them, forgetting or ignoring that the bodies and faces of these types of celebrities are inorganic and unnatural.

I’m not shaming them or anyone else for utilizing the technology. We all know why they do it. I’m merely pointing out the more subtle psychological effects of differing access to age-defying technology. It’s bad for societal morale and individual mental health on a global scale.

You know what’s even worse? The Kardashians do everything to ensure they’re as attractive as possible, yet they still alter their bodies in photos to make themselves look even more flawless. Because women are not seen as valuable unless we look young, and that pressure does not end with the working class. 

So where does all of this leave me, leave us? I saw an article called “11 Ways to Reduce Premature Skin Aging.” One piece of advice caught my attention—avoid repetitive facial expressions to prevent lines on your face. Things like laughing, smiling, and squinting. Frowning and crying, too. 

My daily skincare routine is an undeniable ode to, even yearning for, youth. I spend a decent amount of money on these products. I enjoy the rose quartz roller rolling over my face. Having skin that is lush and moisturized instead of dry and irritated feels good physically and mentally.

To me, the suggestion of limiting smiles, laughter, or even tears to avoid lines on our faces, is absurd and sad. How could this be worth it, just to maybe look a little younger? What is living if it isn’t feeling, and what is feeling if you have to keep it inside, unexpressed? 

Thankfully, there are people out there who are actively opposed to anti-aging technology for moral and philosophical reasons, people who embrace their grey hair, who view Botox as blasphemy against nature. I get it, and I thoroughly appreciate this perspective. Society needs it to counterbalance our obsession with looking young. It reflects humbleness instead of vanity. It shines a light on the beauty that is wisdom.

Aging is a part of life, and death is too. And the beauty of life is also in death, in the inevitable cycles of existence. If we don’t die, if things that are alive don’t die, a lot of life would cease to exist. We would run out of resources, including oxygen to breathe. 

Prolonging the human lifespan will inevitably yield complex consequences—biologically, ecologically, and anthropologically. I wonder if focusing on the capability of anti-aging technology to maintain our youthfulness and beauty is vanity at its worst. Yet how do we realign ourselves to more noble pursuits when society incessantly promotes beauty as the ultimate ideal?

Sources:
https://www.earth.com/news/scientists-have-identified-anti-aging-drugs-using-ai-technology/
https://www.aad.org/public/everyday-care/skin-care-secrets/anti-aging/reduce-premature-aging-skin