Long Life



This comes from personal accounts, but one thing obviously the most emotionally devastating things to happen is to have a pet die. Whether from old age, or horrific accident, or other sad route, the end of such a beautiful chapter in our lives can shut us down. True story: I was reading Old Yeller in elementary school, hoping for a happy story featuring a dog, lost from the outside and brought into a family.

Spoilers lay ahead. Three quarters of the way into the book, my own dog passed away from old age. My younger self was already emotionally fragile, and I myself was devastated. Then I read the end to Old Yeller...


Moving On

Currently, we have no way to extend life with genetics. If you didn't know already, aging is caused by the process our chromosomes divide to multiply to replenish our body. That being said, this takes a cost as life goes on. Telomeres at the end of our chromosomes become depleted and are the indicative factor of aging. The obvious solution would seem to be simply slowing down cellular division and hence we slow down the aging, right? This effect serious drawbacks. Our replenishing of cells insures that damaged cells are removed almost immediately. Should the aging process slow, the damage cell accumulates more damage and has a higher likelihood. Additionally, say you get a cut; the normal time it takes to heal would be quite extended, varying about the factor we slowed down the aging process.

But we are after all in a hypothetical world where an animal was given consciousness from a human DNA, so suppose the effort also went into extending the life span of the animal. But should we?


Benefit

Increasing the lifespan of an animal for research whether conscious or not would continue to give information about how a animal progresses, without having to restart over. The benefit lies in working with an individual to observe the more gradual effects of gene therapy and experimental procedures.

In the case of handling conscious animals, the case can be made that we can observe continual brain development throughout the life of the individual animal and hopefully the brain can continually develop as we observe. Perhaps to say the older a animal grows, the closer it gets to true human consciousness, unlikely to think they would ever surpass us. (Scary thought to keep you up at night). 

Additionally, should the gift of think be given to pet animals, i.e. dogs, cats, and the like, a deeper bond could be formed with 'owner' and 'pet'. Should a horse be given the treatment, the long life span of horses at not even necessitate a lifespan extension, they already live 25 to  30 years. And all the while, ranchers and field hands develop a deep intimate relationship with their horse, lasting longer than those with pets do.

As for predatory animals, the effort to extend lifespan wouldn't really come from humans. But chances are, with a mind capable of deep interactions after verbal communication is possible, the voice for extending their lifespans may come from the animals themselves. A wolf clan wishing to extend the life of their benevolent pack leaders can rule longer. This could enhance the vital state of mind that these animals are still dependent on humans for existence.


Detriment

Emotions can be devastating. As deep as a bond can form with an animal, imagine the deeper bond that can form when full two-way communication is possible. And imagine the devastation when such a bond is broken by death, or betrayal. The hardest thing to quantify is emotions, including and especially including emotional  trauma. And it only seems to be the biggest detriment as it's the hardest to overcome. Should it be considered, absolutely. But how so and whether it would be worth it is unknown.


Conclusion

I suppose this blog was more of an open-ended question as to whether we should work to extend the lives of animals, especially the ones we work with. After all, if we give them an advanced brain, it only makes sense they should get to use it as long as the original owners of a higher complexity brain should.

Anyways, I think a post was deleted, much to my sadness, so I'll try to bring it back up A.S.A.P, especially considering it was the only post I had up last week.

Anyways, Happy Thinking!

Image courtesy of https://www.flickr.com/photos/kristi_decourcy/9113773948

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