We will be able to live to 1,000
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We will be able to live to 1,000
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Re: We will be able to live to 1,000
#2We might or might not defeat the diseases of aging anytime soon, but if you want to help the people who are trying to make it happen, consider donating to the SENS Foundation (money goes directly to research):
Sadly, because aging isn't considered a disease by the FDA and other regulatory bodies, there is actually very little research being done on it if you take into consideration the fact that it kills more people than anything else in the rich countries (100-150k/day, usually after a long period of suffering).
If you want to learn more about what they are doing and why they think their engineering approach has a chance of success, check out Aubrey's book (the paperback version contains a new chapter, afaik):
http://www.amazon.com/Ending-Aging-Rejuvenation-Breakthrough...
It contains a lot of biology, but should be understandable to the lay person.
And if all you want is a really quick intro, check out his TED talk (it's a bit old now (2005), but the general concepts have stayed mostly the same despite recent progress):
http://www.ted.com/talks/aubrey_de_grey_says_we_can_avoid_ag...
or the talk that he gave at Google (2007):
Re: We will be able to live to 1,000
#3Just FYI: This article is from 2004.
Re: We will be able to live to 1,000
#4I don't see how humanity could handle something like mass distribution of a magic treatment that allowed people to live to 1,000. The world would quickly get over crowded, resources would dry up, world wars would follow, and who knows what else.
Re: We will be able to live to 1,000
#5Just going based on the title here. But if we let people live to 1000, that will deny many people the right to have children. The long term consequences of such a change could be a drastic slow down in technological innovation as the super-elderly are able to accumulate vast sums of wealth. Just think of the advantage you'd have as a 500 y/o over a 25 y/o.
Re: We will be able to live to 1,000
#6When I donate to research, I like to see what the "partial failure result" is.
One of the neat thing about sens research is that if you happen to even get one or two of the parts of damage fixable or even moderated, then you have a much less inactive old age period, even if no actual longevity is gained.
I find decrepit old age to be one of the biggest issues of our time (who cares if grandma is 80 if she can move like she's 50; the issue society faces today with the elderly is one of them not being able to take care of themselves).
Additionally, with the aging of Europe and Japan, prolonging the useful life of the workforce is a big worry.
Re: We will be able to live to 1,000
#7Life expectancy has increased a good amount in the past 50 years, raising by ~8.5. That is to say, for the exponentially increasing abilities of modern medicine, we have increased linearly in life expectancy. Maybe there is some breaking point, such as a universal cure for cancers and/or the end of heart disease, but regardless it seems like a huge leap to go from ~78 to ~1000 in life expectancy.
Re: We will be able to live to 1,000
#8Just going based on the title here. But if we let people live to 1000, that will deny many people the right to have children. The long term consequences of such a change could be a drastic slow down in technological innovation as the super-elderly are able to accumulate vast sums of wealth. Just think of the advantage you'd have as a 500 y/o over a 25 y/o.
Childbearing age may also be increased though. SO if you can have a kid at 200 who's perfectly healthy, why would you necessarily spurt one out at 20?
Re: We will be able to live to 1,000
#9Life expectancy has increased a good amount in the past 50 years, raising by ~8.5. That is to say, for the exponentially increasing abilities of modern medicine, we have increased linearly in life expectancy. Maybe there is some breaking point, such as a universal cure for cancers and/or the end of heart disease, but regardless it seems like a huge leap to go from ~78 to ~1000 in life expectancy.
Let's say that life expectancy is now increasing at a rate of 2 years per decade. If you want to live to 1000, you just need to increase that to 10 years per decade. You don't have to go from 78 to 1000 all at once.
Re: We will be able to live to 1,000
#10There's a book by Asimov, Please Explain, that has a list of science questions.
I remember the very last question is about "what point does getting old has?".
He argues that without aging and dying, populations will stop getting better and will stagnate.
It seemed very appropriate to link here, but I couldn't get a link. Other than a Spanish translation :-(.