I've received a lot of advice on romantic love over the years. It seems everyone is an expert on it and has something to say. Most of the advice I received was from my close guy friends, a bunch of professional, weekend warrior types. Unfortunately, most of their advice was biased towards getting the so-called hot girl, and then later in life: the trophy wife (hot girl who can be a good mother).
It was poor advice. In terms of courting women, my guy friends and most males--regardless of education, class differences, ethnicity, or career--are just plain dummies when it comes to finding the right mate. They think in archaic ways, driven by flashy, peacock-inspired propensities that worked for our primate ancestors, but hardly fill modern-day needs successfully. Those ways never worked much for me, and in light of the coming transhumanist era, they work even less.
I met my wife through online dating, which is perhaps the single greatest sociological invention of the late 20th Century. My wife didn't have a picture as part of her profile, which is what attracted me to her. She had initials behind her name, though, and I found them sexy. When I married her less than a year later, she was almost 40, three years older than me. Even though my friends liked and respected her, they thought I was nuts. She was too old, they cautioned. Even my parents were worried, wondering if she was beyond the permissible breeding age. I was warned of having a child with three eyes and fish gills--that is, if we could get pregnant at all. My wife and I now have two gorgeous kids, and those sexy initials behind her name haven't aged a day.
How many men in the world have met a spectacular woman, but because she's beyond the nebulous, culturally accepted age of bearing children, she has been strung along, eventually judged, and then dumped? I can think of numerous instances with my guy friends, who seem stuck on landing the perfectly fresh 20-something-year-old, even at the expense of personality, soul, experience, and respect. In case my friends haven't been paying attention, human evolution is occurring faster than ever. In vitro fertilization (IVF), genetic engineering, and cytoplasm donation are changing the way we mate and build families, and it's doing it for the betterment of society.
Though hard to believe, the reality is simple: It's likely going to be safer and easier for a 70-year-old woman to have healthy offspring in two decades time than it is for a 25-year-old to have offspring today. In 20 years, many babies in America will be designer children, with genetic traits, sex, and emotional tendencies picked out ahead of time. Ectogenesis, raising a fetus in an artificial womb outside the body, will also likely be available. In fact, even men will be able to give birth to children via surgically implanted uteruses if they want. But even more far out, different sexes may not even be needed at all, based on advancing cloning technologies.
However, that's just the start of the transhumanist era upon us. Let's play a thought-experiment: Remember that amazing person you once met who was 20 or 30 years older than you--the one you clicked perfectly with on so many levels and who totally inspired you. If that person can live a few more decades, he or she is going to be able to come back into their prime via reverse aging. And plastic surgery, whether vane or not, is going to make them look better than they've ever looked before. Indeed, the game of dating and romantic love is about to be dramatically upgraded. The old rules of courtship and relationships will soon crumble.
Leading gerontologist Aubrey de Grey, chief scientist and co-founder of Silicon Valley-based SENS Research Foundation, believes we may be able to stop aging in humans in about 20 years. Researchers have already had success with this in mice. Most laypeople don't realize how far longevity science has come in the last few decades. That's why Google just started the company Calico and is putting hundreds of millions of dollars into aging research and the ability to conquer human mortality. Achieving such scientific milestones are the inevitable future, and they will create a paradigm shift for the species. Getting old will simply not be a part of life for transhumanity. Perfect health and living in one's prime age will be the ultimate desired goal.
So the next time you're in a coffee shop, don't overlook that 70-year-old sitting in the corner reading Dickens, Hemmingway, or maybe even a copy of The Transhumanist Wager. That senior citizen with their years of wisdom and experience might soon be fair game for a love interest.