Extending the human lifespan

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27 Nov 2011, 7:18 pm

So there's this guy called Aubrey De Grey, and he is convinced that within our lifetimes, we will see a cure for aging and humans will essentially become immortal, or at least capable of living 1,000 years.

Personally I think that's awesome if he's right and I think it's a good thing to put money into. I'm almost 22 years old and I still feel like life is beginning, yet I'm already more than 1/4 of the projected life span for an American man (something like 77 years old).

People say life would get boring. I disagree. If you were born in 1861, and still were alive today at the age of 150, do you think your life wouldn't be fun anymore? I highly doubt it! These times are so interesting and amazing, I can't imagine being bored. I would be depressed about the people I loved passing away, and I would hope they shared in my immortality.

But my question is - do you think Aubrey is right? He believes the first person to live 1,000 years is already alive today. That might sound a little bit ambitious, but today's technology is truly incredible. If we can fly probes to Neptune 90 years after we were still using horse carts as our primary mode of transportation - why not expand our lifespan from 80 to 800 within this century?

I think at the very least, the typical person alive today can expect to live past 100, assuming you're younger than say 60.

Assi
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27 Nov 2011, 7:23 pm

I would rather just get done with this faster but I don't know if I'll change that opinion.
What would you do in a thousand years?

Last edited by Assi on 27 Nov 2011, 7:41 pm, edited 1 time in total.

NineTailedFox
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27 Nov 2011, 7:30 pm

I think he's right. He might be off in the timeline, though.

Vigilans
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27 Nov 2011, 7:35 pm

I wonder if the brain can handle living that long. Old and potentially bad ideas will also never really disappear with the death of their generation if their generation never dies

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donnie_darko
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27 Nov 2011, 7:37 pm

Assi wrote:

I would rather just get done with this faster but I don't know if I'll change that opinion.
What would you do in a hundred years?

It surprises me how ... unpopular the idea of life extension is. I wouldn't be surprised if we discovered exactly how to do it, and it faltered because people would rather die young! :O

Especially if there is no afterlife or reincarnation, I think it has appeal. I definitely don't want to 'not exist' and I will do whatever I can to avoid it, unless existence would be extreme suffering. But life isn't that bad, is it?

ruveyn
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27 Nov 2011, 7:37 pm

donnie_darko wrote:

Aging is not a disease. It is normal cell functioning.

ruveyn

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27 Nov 2011, 7:38 pm

Vigilans wrote:

I wonder if the brain can handle living that long. Old and potentially bad ideas will also never really disappear with the death of their generation if their generation never dies

Not necessarily so. People change their minds do they not? And certain ideas seem to never disappear no matter how many different generations they pass down to.

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27 Nov 2011, 7:42 pm

donnie_darko wrote:

Vigilans wrote:

I wonder if the brain can handle living that long. Old and potentially bad ideas will also never really disappear with the death of their generation if their generation never dies

Not necessarily so. People change their minds do they not? And certain ideas seem to never disappear no matter how many different generations they pass down to.

People do but if you live an extremely long time you are likely to get more jaded. It will also redefine current age related social constructs. Then there is the fact that it would lead to a hyper-Malthusian catastrophe as the population never stops expanding

Circle989898
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27 Nov 2011, 7:43 pm

I'd love to do it. Slap my DNA and autosomes on a gram negative and call me 352.

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27 Nov 2011, 7:48 pm

I hope such a thing never happens, we're not equipped to live indeffinitely.

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NineTailedFox
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27 Nov 2011, 7:49 pm

Quote:

Aging is not a disease. It is normal cell functioning.

Eh, let's look at the definition of cure.

Quote:

cure (kyr)
n.
1. Restoration of health; recovery from disease.
2. A method or course of medical treatment used to restore health.
3. An agent, such as a drug, that restores health; a remedy.
4. Something that corrects or relieves a harmful or disturbing situation: The cats proved to be a good cure for our mouse problem.
5. Ecclesiastical Spiritual charge or care, as of a priest for a congregation.
6. The office or duties of a curate.
7. The act or process of preserving a product.
v. cured, cur·ing, cures
v.tr.
1. To restore to health.
2. To effect a recovery from: cure a cold.
3. To remove or remedy (something harmful or disturbing): cure an evil.
4. To preserve (meat, for example), as by salting, smoking, or aging.
5. To prepare, preserve, or finish (a substance) by a chemical or physical process.
6. To vulcanize (rubber).
v.intr.
1. To effect a cure or recovery: a medicine that cures.
2. To be prepared, preserved, or finished by a chemical or physical process: hams curing in the smokehouse.

Looks about right to me. Whatever though. Just a definitional game. But we should remember that normal is not normative.

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27 Nov 2011, 8:08 pm

donnie_darko wrote:

People who would say that life would get boring are trying to think about everything in the universe at once. There is so much to learn about the universe and with an antediluvian lifespan one could learn so much more, at the least by mathematical default if not also due to not having to rush through learning everything in hyperexpensive colleges. Interstellar travel would also then be possible on the basis of the human lifespan being greater than theoretical travel times with NPP and other subluminal non-chemical propulsion systems.

Dingo7
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27 Nov 2011, 8:24 pm

Even if we could live for 1000 years... i would think only a miniscule minority would even make it past 250-300ish... Really pushing your luck to live 1000 years and not have been hit by a car or develop some kind of cancer or be a victim of serial killer or accidently electocute yourself or get bombed because its WW3 or get eaten by a shark etc etc..................... And the people that do make it that far... alot of them would probably loose a limb or one of their senses along the way...

But in saying that if technology could make us live for 1000 years then you would think that things like cancer would have a readily availible cure...

I think the goal should be to make the average lifespan as it is now as safe and healthy as it can be... rather then just making it longer...
Think quality over quantity...

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iamnotaparakeet
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27 Nov 2011, 8:33 pm

Dingo7 wrote:

I rather have the centuries of life with a risk of this that or the other than live for merely decades like everyone else. Those who would prefer to live for decades thinking that ending their life from the death of their cells after a few measly decades is higher quality than living for even the few centuries prior to cell death, well they can decide for themselves but I consider them to be wrong. Live long and prosper dudes!

iamnotaparakeet
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27 Nov 2011, 8:37 pm

Lecks wrote:

I hope such a thing never happens, we're not equipped to live indefinitely.

How do you mean that we're not equipped to live indefinitely? Resources on this one planet are finite, would that be how? Then we move outward, ever expanding our territory and bringing life to what would otherwise remain wastelands forever otherwise.

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27 Nov 2011, 8:39 pm

Dingo7 wrote:

all of that would presume any of those things are something 1 in 10 or so experience, in reality it is much much less likely, there has been soemthing like 50 shark deaths in the us over the past couple of decades and that is with a population of several hundred million.

not that you wouldnt run a higher risk but as iamnotakarakeet said rather run a life of risk than cut it short to avoid it, in essence we have to live this way even in our current state.

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