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Humans Could Live up to 150 Years, New Research Suggests

scientificamerican.com

121–130 of 167 posts

Re: Humans Could Live up to 150 Years, New Research Suggests

#121
post #3

Last weeks article was 130. Clearly take this all with a grain of salt, and realize that bioengineering is having an explosion that will redefine everything we think about medicine and the human body.

Unfortunately most of us were probably born a generation too early to benefit from the advancements forthcoming this century.

Better make do with what we have! Life is short, even if you make it to 130. Take advantage of it before you’re dead.

Re: Humans Could Live up to 150 Years, New Research Suggests

#122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Being able to produce any protein in the body with mRNA seems like a pretty big leap.

So do understanding the role of DNA and understanding it’s chemistry: necessary, but not sufficient. I think mRNA production will help in quite a few rare genetic diseases, but also that we’re far away from being able to safely make the myriads of subtle changes needed to make otherwise healthy people live longer. I compare it to heart surgery. It is quite a miracle that we can do it, but the risks are so high that w…

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Re: Humans Could Live up to 150 Years, New Research Suggests

#123
post #3

Last weeks article was 130. Clearly take this all with a grain of salt, and realize that bioengineering is having an explosion that will redefine everything we think about medicine and the human body.

Unfortunately most of us were probably born a generation too early to benefit from the advancements forthcoming this century. Better make do with what we have! Life is short, even if you make it to 130. Take advantage of it before you’re dead.

What's the quote? Something like "the trick isn't to live forever, it's to live long enough to live forever"

Re: Humans Could Live up to 150 Years, New Research Suggests

#124
post #3

Last weeks article was 130. Clearly take this all with a grain of salt, and realize that bioengineering is having an explosion that will redefine everything we think about medicine and the human body.

Is having? Where? I see nothing that leads to me believe the evidence-free hype around longevity. I think it's early to say it's happening now . Eventually? Sure...maybe.

We can now make the safest, most effective vaccines ever in 2 days. We're making huge advancements with mRNA. CRSPR is still a new technology that is being rapidly improved. Last years big biotech story was that we have more or less solved the protein folding problem, which effectively gives us strong predictive power. So yes, it's happening now. We're still in the early stages of it, but it is without a doubt happening.

Edit: adding from a comment below, there are real world instances of lab grown tissues being transplanted into patients. That is also in the early stages, but has evidence of real world progress.

Re: Humans Could Live up to 150 Years, New Research Suggests

#125
post #29

Taking this with a grain of salt, of course, but cool! Worth pointing out the concept of "healthspan," which is pretty much like it sounds like: how long you stay healthy to do the things you want to do. Long lifespan seems worthwhile if it's accompanied by a long healthspan as well.

I don't understand this whole idea of "healthspan". Making people not age at all is the endgame for medicine as a science. Anything lesser would still be putting an enormous strain on healthcare systems to make dying people die a bit slower. And if you've solved aging, there's not such a thing as a lifespan any more because people would only be dying of accidents. It's definitely not going to work such that someone l…

Healthcare isn't really a limited resource though, there's nothing stopping the healthcare industry from just growing until it meets demand.

Re: Humans Could Live up to 150 Years, New Research Suggests

#126
post #3

Last weeks article was 130. Clearly take this all with a grain of salt, and realize that bioengineering is having an explosion that will redefine everything we think about medicine and the human body.

I think the biggest step will come once we start transplanting organs from clones of ourselves. Apart from traumatic or infectious diseases, being able to replace most vital organs would extend our lives to the last remaining non-transplant-able organ.

Just get a nice brain transplant every eighty years or so and you, too, can live forever...

Re: Humans Could Live up to 150 Years, New Research Suggests

#127
While it's cool that many people are doing research on extending human life span, I think it's equally important (if not more) to think about how to enhance the quality of life when people get old. A lot people retire when they are ~60 yo. If they live up to 150 years, that is 90 years of retirement, which is ridiculers. I do wish that people can be "young" for longer. To me, that is more important than just living longer.

Re: Humans Could Live up to 150 Years, New Research Suggests

#128
post #3

Last weeks article was 130. Clearly take this all with a grain of salt, and realize that bioengineering is having an explosion that will redefine everything we think about medicine and the human body.

I think the biggest step will come once we start transplanting organs from clones of ourselves. Apart from traumatic or infectious diseases, being able to replace most vital organs would extend our lives to the last remaining non-transplant-able organ.

Back in 2020, a Japanese team did the worlds first transplant of lab grown heart cells into a patient. There is definitely progress being made on this.

Re: Humans Could Live up to 150 Years, New Research Suggests

#129

Has anyone actually read the paper? I have some pretty serious qualms with the topology traversal routes over the DOSI vs age manifold — they seem unfounded. This isn’t inherently problematic, but that seems like a core assumption - that the steepness and thus likelihood of falling off the DOSI associated cliff increases with age. The idea being once you fall off the cliff you die. I don’t think it is a bad hypothesi…

I disagree with the paper because it neglects the possibility of engineered approaches to reverse the mechanisms of ageing

Re: Humans Could Live up to 150 Years, New Research Suggests

#130
post #11

Then the Lord said, “My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, because he also is flesh; nevertheless his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.” -Genesis 6:3

Sorry, but I dont base my worldview on what a bunch of bronze-age people said. It's a good mythological story, though. We have science. -------------------------------- Edit: I really don't understand the downvoters. This specific passage was written 6000 years ago, give or take. It's from a religious holybook that has no bearing on technology, medicine, or science. Germ theory was nonexistent, most forms of medicine…

If you ignore religion the quote still has scientific value as it could be a reflection of life expectancy at the time

Going ham on religion/myth/worldview isn't the scientific approach at all

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