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Scientists say they’ll soon extend life ‘well beyond 120’

theguardian.com

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Re: Scientists say they’ll soon extend life ‘well beyond 120’

#101

Post by atallcostsky »

ChuckMcM wrote: post #78

And if you thought it was hard to get hired in tech at the age of 50, wait until you try at 100 :-) On a more serious note, it is going to be a huge financial disaster if folks "suddenly" start living to 120. There are many many things which have nominal lifespans "baked in" and if that changes gradually the algorithm can be adjusted gradually but if it changes suddenly, that results in insufficient money collected t…

This would be a problem of course, but I'm betting this is a problem most people would like to have. If my two options are: Die at 100, and not have to work for the last X years, or live an extra 20 years, with required working, I at least would prefer to live and work than to die and not work.

Re: Scientists say they’ll soon extend life ‘well beyond 120’

#102

Post by jqm »

Zigurd wrote: post #91
jqm wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who is going to hire you? Try getting a job at 62 right now.

Who is going to hire you at 20, right now? It's a problem we have to solve for everyone.

It's a problem that is far more acute for certain ages than others....

Re: Scientists say they’ll soon extend life ‘well beyond 120’

#103

Post by ChrisGranger »

biomimic wrote: post #84

If we extend life to 120 it buys us more time to go for 150, then that buys us more time to go for 300 etc.

Yes, this, exactly. I was trying to explain this to a friend the other day. We don't need to "cure death" all at once in order for humanity to achieve practical immortality. It will take significant effort, obviously, but I have no doubt we'll attain it as our understanding of biology gets ever more sophisticated. Whether or not we'll personally be around to see it is another matter.

Re: Scientists say they’ll soon extend life ‘well beyond 120’

#104

Post by jqm »

Ilverin wrote: post #30
eagsalazar2 wrote: post #24

I can't believe no one thinks this is a terrible idea. Of course I , selfishly, would love to live longer but doing so on a large scale is almost guaranteed to be a disaster. While we're at it why don't we just solve aging, provide infinite food supply, and eliminate predation for deer. That would be a great idea right? No way that would have any negative side effects, right?

"doing so on a large scale is almost guaranteed to be a disaster" Over the past centuries, human life expectancy has increased greatly and yet we have a much higher quality of life. It's an extraordinary claim to suggest that the continuance of this already-existing trend is 'almost guaranteed to be a disaster'.

well, to be fair, if not an outright disaster, we are creating a bit of mess with so many people at this standard of living...

Re: Scientists say they’ll soon extend life ‘well beyond 120’

#105

Post by ChuckMcM »

atallcostsky wrote: post #101
ChuckMcM wrote: post #78

And if you thought it was hard to get hired in tech at the age of 50, wait until you try at 100 :-) On a more serious note, it is going to be a huge financial disaster if folks "suddenly" start living to 120. There are many many things which have nominal lifespans "baked in" and if that changes gradually the algorithm can be adjusted gradually but if it changes suddenly, that results in insufficient money collected t…

This would be a problem of course, but I'm betting this is a problem most people would like to have. If my two options are: Die at 100, and not have to work for the last X years, or live an extra 20 years, with required working, I at least would prefer to live and work than to die and not work.

Since I don't think changing the lifespan will change societal values much, and because of that I believe that statistically the likely outcome is 'want to work but can't find it.'

Being at the end of your life and unemployed is a markedly different experience than being at the beginning of your life and unemployed.

Re: Scientists say they’ll soon extend life ‘well beyond 120’

#106

Post by walterbell »

marincounty wrote: post #92
crdoconnor wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>People already say that baby boomers have hogged wealth at the expense of their children and younger generations. I haven't investigated those claims in detail but it seems plausible. This generational warfare meme is pushed by, among others, Stan Druckenmiller: http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2014/01/three-card-monte-gene... You'll note that they push both sides at once. Boomers are told that millenials are feckless…

I'm a boomer, and I just want to state I don't feel 'millennials are feckless and lazy'! I get so tired of every generation looking for fault in the new generation. As a kid--my father never stopped complaining about the Hippies, even though deep down inside he had the same values, but did what society dictated. I always knew he wanted more out of life than going to a job he really didn't like, and putting up with a…

wdyd is just a protocol handshake. If you exclude everyone who honors a common protocol, you will be left with a needlessly small sample set. Instead, a double entendre response to a protocol handshake can be a good Turing test.

Re: Scientists say they’ll soon extend life ‘well beyond 120’

#107

Post by D-Coder »

tedsanders wrote: post #61

In 1850, the average 80 year old lived to be 86 years old. In 2011, the average 80 year old lived to be 89 years old. [1] http://ourworldindata.org/roser/presentation/online/Improvin... (press the right arrow key for the graph to pop up) [2] http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0005140.html Modern medicine has mostly benefited the young, not the old. The last 150 years of little progress makes me skeptical of claims about…

Six more years vs nine more years is a 50% increase. Or looking at it another way, it's three solid years of life. That's pretty decent! Not even considering that for the first several decades after your starting point, medical technology hardly changed.

Re: Scientists say they’ll soon extend life ‘well beyond 120’

#108

Post by JoshTriplett »

kirse wrote: post #13

I always see anti-aging research as an expression of our inbuilt need for hope and significance (a desire to be known for eternity). It's far more philosophical than scientific. Many have concluded there is no meaningful eternity, and thus they seek to construct their own hope through anti-aging research. So it's slightly ironic that the article mentions anti-aging research as needing to address a "root cause", when…

Forget about being known. Quoting Woody Allen: "I don't want to achieve immortality through my work. I want to achieve it through not dying."

Re: Scientists say they’ll soon extend life ‘well beyond 120’

#109

Post by scythe »

DanBC wrote: post #90
thangalin wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Valproate, valproic acid, and sodium butyrate affect histone deacetylase, which might help rejuvenate brain plasticity. See also: * http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1460-9568.2010.... * http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn24831-learning-drugs-r... * http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malleability_of_intelligence

Valproate is used as an anti-epileptic and as a mood stabiliser. There are some risks of PCOS for women, but those risks have never been explained properly to me.

Valproate causes massive weight gain. It likely exacerbates any conditions (incl. PCOS) associated with obesity.

Re: Scientists say they’ll soon extend life ‘well beyond 120’

#110

Post by spopejoy »

Larry Ellison, co-founder of computer company Oracle, told his biographer Mark Wilson. “How can a person be there and then just vanish, just not be there?”

Succinct summary of the vapid naivete of zillionaires who can't incorporate death into their "but I've gotten everything else I want" mindset.

I applaud the research. But I don't mind a finite life. Death is part of the cycle that has nourished our planet from the beginning. There are definitely a host of unintended consequences we'll face when it's only poor folks who die "young".

Look at the bright side: future generations can enjoy a world without Larry!

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