New research reveals longevity gains slowing, life expectancy of 100 unlikely • Hacker News Board

Re: New research reveals longevity gains slowing, life expectancy of 100 unlikely

#351

Post by notahacker » Sun, Aug 31, 2025, 1:56 PM UTC

sigmoid10 wrote: post #215

ACCount37 wrote: post #202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's consistent with what I said, yes. Two decades of this kind of research spending add up to $100 billion. And most billionaires are closer to $5 billion rich than to $500 billion rich. It would sure be nice to have an infinite money glitch billionaire who cares a lot about funding anti-aging research and lobbying for anti-aging efforts, the way Musk cares about space exploration and trolling people online. We're…

The point is if anti-aging didn't have this edgy image in billionaire circles, there would be more than enough money to go around. If everyone agrees that we should get on this like we do certain other diseases, we could certainly tap into a lot of resources.

Seems more like billionaires spending money on trying to live forever has an edgy image in non-billionaire cycles. Sure, maybe Gates and Buffet really aren't that interested in living forever, but the likes of Thiel and Musk aren't exactly noted for techno-pessimism or caring whether the average normie thinks they and some of their investments are creepy, and they absolutely have the dealflow and the connections to evaluate any promising life extension ideas. If they're still spending more on stuff like 140 characters, maybe the low hanging fruit just aren't that low

Re: New research reveals longevity gains slowing, life expectancy of 100 unlikely

#352

Post by zksijdjd » Sun, Aug 31, 2025, 1:58 PM UTC

amanaplanacanal wrote: post #313

zksijdjd wrote: post #303

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

> An American is (on the whole) somebody who’s genetically European and has had family here for generations. This is obviously nonsense. "White" Americans are something like 57% of the population. The US is very mixed, and always has been.

> The US is very mixed, and always has been

You can search US demographic data from a plethora of sources to see this is not true. It’s a recent development enabled by modern laws and policies.

Re: New research reveals longevity gains slowing, life expectancy of 100 unlikely

#353

Post by Levitz » Sun, Aug 31, 2025, 2:02 PM UTC

StopDisinfo910 wrote: post #294

pembrook wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Huh? The problem in Europe is not immigration, the problem is there being no European country with a vision of the future for immigrants to buy into. Aesthetic Traditions ≠ Culture. Traditions are just one aspect, but as Nietzsche wrote about the death of God, traditions are not a substitute for values. America for hundreds of years has offered a shared vision of the future and values to immigrants of every backgroun…

Do we really have to read again and again the same fantasies the far right spew out continuously here in France on Hacker News? It’s so easy to factually disprove, it’s kind of boring. I will keep it short because I value my time but here some things you might want to ponder: - America integration doesn’t exist. The American strategy has always been leave people alone to keep living in their own culture. There is no…

This is incoherent babble. Not in a figurative or metaphorical way, you are not making sense and this kind of discourse is exactly what ensures that the far right will occupy most governments in Europe in some 10-20 years time, which I'm absolutely not looking forward to.

>America integration doesn’t exist.

This premise

> The American strategy has always been leave people alone to keep living in their own culture.

Contradicts this. You can't have both of those things. you EXTRA can't have them when you further talk about American culture in the same goddamned line.

> Europe has a cultural entity doesn’t exist.

This premise

>The way Islam has been managed is an issue in itself. People deserve to be able to practice their cult freely and in good condition but most European countries have refused to take charge of the question

Contradicts this.

And to be completely honest, this ending:

>Plenty of political parties in Europe have strong visions for the future. Some of them are linked to social justice and preserving the environment, things you obviously dislike. The fact you can’t understand something doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist however.

Straight up makes me think you are not serious at all and straight up trolling. But in the off chance you aren't, I mean it when I say you are the problem you want to fight against.

Re: New research reveals longevity gains slowing, life expectancy of 100 unlikely

#354

Post by ModernMech » Sun, Aug 31, 2025, 2:03 PM UTC

r_singh wrote: post #342

ggm wrote: post #191

Remarkable hostility and strange circular logic from some people posting here. Clearly belief outstrips evidence. If research suggests there's an observable asymptotic trend, public health dollars at the very least might be better spent on quality of life as much as quantity. The posts saying an atom of oxygen is potentially infinitely long lived (ignoring radioactive decay?) As a "proof" that life extension has no l…

The problem is that mistrust is at its highest that it has been. Science and evidence have been used as political tools in the recent past... and it has started becoming clear to more and more people. Either that or to protect financial interests of some legacy chaebol... so people are losing faith. In my country people both believe and have some evidence that those that live in an orderly fashion, learn to be emotio…

> Science and evidence have been used as political tools for a while... and it has started becoming clear to more and more people.

Yeah, they noticed when their lives kept getting longer and longer thanks to science and evidence-backed policy.

Re: New research reveals longevity gains slowing, life expectancy of 100 unlikely

#355

Post by Levitz » Sun, Aug 31, 2025, 2:05 PM UTC

amanaplanacanal wrote: post #313

zksijdjd wrote: post #303

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

> An American is (on the whole) somebody who’s genetically European and has had family here for generations. This is obviously nonsense. "White" Americans are something like 57% of the population. The US is very mixed, and always has been.

The US was 80% White 35 years ago

https://www.iowadatacenter.org/datatables/UnitedStates/usstr...

Re: New research reveals longevity gains slowing, life expectancy of 100 unlikely

#356

Post by zksijdjd » Sun, Aug 31, 2025, 2:07 PM UTC

Demiurge wrote: post #315

zksijdjd wrote: post #303

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

> In almost all cases immigration replaces the need for native births - the latter being a key component for a strong, safe culture that creates a happy median population. Immigration in USA has multiple components, but it seems to be you're undervaluing the amount of opportunistic intellectual workers, who come here to participate in high level education, and entrepreneurial capitalism. But, here are the numbers acr…

Most Americans want a country that benefits Americans. High skilled immigrants:

1. Take jobs an American would otherwise fill, which would not be a problem except 2. The economy disproportionately benefits the capitalist class (billionaires). Bringing over immigrants to boost the economy doesn’t help the median American, and it creates competition for natives

I’m not undervaluing it. Im saying it provides no value for the majority of Americans. And this on a purely economic axis - social and cultural angles are arguably all negative.

Re: New research reveals longevity gains slowing, life expectancy of 100 unlikely

#357

Post by Levitz » Sun, Aug 31, 2025, 2:10 PM UTC

ACCount37 wrote: post #276

DrBazza wrote: post #261

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't forget that the recipient countries of immigrants are brain-draining the countries they're leaving. Arguably those motivated individuals are precisely those that should stay in their country and make it less 'bad'.

That's for them to decide, not you. I don't have enough cruelty in me to demand that someone should stay in Sudan and try to "fix" what's happening there.

Do you have enough cruelty to promote immigration, grabbing the best people a country has to offer, leaving it in the gutter?

Re: New research reveals longevity gains slowing, life expectancy of 100 unlikely

#358

Post by meeks » Sun, Aug 31, 2025, 2:10 PM UTC

lemoncookiechip wrote: post #347

I find it a tough sell to add another 20 years to life expectancy, considering that by the time you reach 70, most people are already in decline (some worse than others), and the drop from 70 to 80 tends to be steep for many. Those who make it past 80 into their 90s or even 100s often aren’t living particularly fulfilling lives, if you can even call it living at that point. Losing your vision, your hearing, your mobi…

I think this is a huge misconception and I don't think it works this way. have you heard people say 50 is the new 40, etc.? The same thing would work at older ages. Sure the last 10 years are a decline, but you are pushing those years out not adding more of them.

Re: New research reveals longevity gains slowing, life expectancy of 100 unlikely

#359

Post by bradley13 » Sun, Aug 31, 2025, 2:10 PM UTC

Genetics required. Natural evolution has zero interest in old people, so there has been no evolutionary pressure to extend lifespan. Possibly even the opposite.

We could apply that pressure, either through selective breeding over generations, or through direct genetic modification. Maybe we aren't quite there yet, but it won't be long.

Experiments on insects with selective breeding have easily tripled lifespans. How well that would transfer to mammals is hard to say, but a substantial increase is certainly possible.

Re: New research reveals longevity gains slowing, life expectancy of 100 unlikely

#360

Post by fluidcruft » Sun, Aug 31, 2025, 2:10 PM UTC

brabel wrote: post #270

nabla9 wrote: post #233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you had full understanding of human cell and how they contribute to homeostasis, you could reprogram the cell to rejuvenate them endlessly without turning into cancer (many cancers have unlimited lifespan). You would also need to find ways to remove all cruft that gradually accumulates even in healthy body, like heavy metals etc.

How do you know that you could? That’s the question! If we did understand biology perfectly it may be that we would then prove no organism can live forever and reproduction is the only way.

Reproduction doesn't create whole new cells from nothing (except in the ship of Thesius sense). It's existing cells getting reprogrammed to do new things.

Reproduction does result in new matrix/scaffolding being built but the cells build that (and can rebuild it if so directed).

Of course some things "we" care about exist exclusively in the matrix (configurations of neurons, learned behaviors, memories, etc) so that could well be a limit for those parts of the body where we care primarily about preserving the matrix.

Anyway my point is that "reproduction" doesn't create whole new life, it's just a continuation.