Have you heard of Pascal's Wager?

It's about as mathematical a reason to believe in God as any. Pascal didn't rely on evidence or revelation for his argument. Instead, he stressed the relatively insignificant cost to secure the possibility of an infinitely positive outcome; when the enormities of heaven and hell are at stake, disbelief becomes illogical.

In basic terms, Pascal's argument is that logically you might as well believe in God.

When the benefit is infinitely positive and the consequence infinitely negative - heaven&hell. Even in the face of uncertainty about the reality of heaven or hell, if the cost to play it safe is low enough you might as well go through the motions and believe! One hour of church once a week isn't so bad when an infinity of good or bad after death are at stake.

Wether or not Pascal's Wager is actually convincing, his argument's underlying logic can apply neatly today to human longevity.

My bioengineering longevity version goes like this:

There are compelling reasons to believe biotechnology is going to continue advancing tremendously in the coming decades and result in radical life-extension. Imagine, for example, using your own cells in a 3D-bioprinter to create a fresh new liver that could save your life. Or modifying the embryological process to generate new organs from individual stem cells for transplant. Both are real strategies already in preliminary proof-of-concept (links here and here) that could lead to substantial health and life-extension improvements.

If we can manage to live decades or centuries longer we can bear witness to human civilizational progress over millennial time-scales, upgrade our own intelligence, and join humanity's incredibly rich technological future into the stars and beyond.

Longevity is 'heaven' in Pascal's Bioengineering Wager.

So, what's the 'church'? What's the low-cost thing we should each be doing to get secure our spot in this possible heaven?

Well, there's trouble in paradise - an original sin, of sorts.

The quality of the cells you start with might matter a lot and we're all getting old, fast.

Imagine yourself decades from now as an old fart donating your stem cells to be grown and used in 3D-bioprinting to create your new liver, or heart, or skin, or kidney, or neurons. Your stem cells suck because you're old. Your granddaughter is happy to donate her healthy young stem cells, but the doctors tell you that your immune system won't accept. If only you had… BANKED YOUR OWN STEM CELLS FOR YOURSELF WHEN YOU WERE YOUNG.

This is 'church' in my bio version of Pascal's Wager.

The cost of cryopreservation is low and the possible benefits are high.

It's called Acorn Biolabs and it's the startup I started and co-created with Drew Taylor and Patrick Pumputis In our lifetimes scientists will have created bio-engineering solutions powerful enough to improve our lifespans using preserved young cellular material. It really matters whether you preserved your cells or not because you're risking the worst possible outcome: missing out on the opportunity to continue doing the things you love indefinitely. That's pretty powerful. Is it more or less convincing than the original wager? It becomes personal to each of us to look at the facts, what we believe in, what we want out of life, and how much we feel there's a real opportunity for bio-engineering to achieve something.