We are closer than ever to finding a cure for old age. Stopping cellular degeneration is within our lifetime. We can possibly live for several hundred years.
This post is a request for support and resistance to the idea of living hundreds of years. Responses will be catalogued and reported.
What do you think about getting to live another hundred years?
Sounds like a cool idea, but… it would cause major over crowding. Besides, I figure it would mostly be kept a secret for the elites of the world.
It’s a myth that the human body is suited under perfect conditions to live for more than 100 years. The human body was designed only to survive through reproductive years, and into grandparenting, which does have evolutionary benefits. After that, your use in carrying on the immortal part of humans…your DNA…is over.
Additionally, there is no “old age disease” itself, but rather numerous conditions caused by the natural and inevitable breakdown of our systems due to having lived past our reproductive usefulness.
This book (http://www.wwnorton.com/catalog/fall99/quest.htm) is a great place to start to learn about these issues.
-L
Yes, but the OP isn’t asking, “Can we live forever?”–he’s asking, “Would you want to live forever? Is it a good idea, generally, for the human race?”
Me, I dunno. I find it hard to visualize this whole subject without sliding over into Tolkien Territory, where the humans have the “Gift of Death”, etc.
And it would certainly make for an overcrowding problem, although it’s possible that by the time we had solved the Problem of Death, we would also have solved the Problem of Interstellar Travel, and we’d have other planets to go expand on. Somebody already did a sci-fi book on this, on living forever and needing room for everybody to live. Heinlein? Time Enough for Love? Yes? No?
Yeah SexyWriter. And that writing wasn’t very sexy at all.
Besides, anti-aging developments way even extend the reproductive window. Who can say at his point?
If I had the choice between dying at 70 and getting increasinly wrinkled and smaller until I’m a midget and can’t do anything but blink to communicate, I’d say I wouldn’t care for that kind of life life extension.
But at any rate I don’t think that’s the kind of thing scintists are looking for anyway. I don’t know if the drug companies plan on making a big profit with the slogan “We’ll make your life increasingly miserable for hundreds of years.”
#1. The OP clearly states that he believes, “We are closer than ever to finding a cure for old age.” He also says he believes we can live for a couple hundred years. These statements are false. Therefore, thinking that he’s based his “great debate” on false information, I felt it worthwhile to point it out.
#2. For the last time, it’s SexyWritER, not SexyWritING.
As a self-proclaimed immortality enthusiast if feel I must say a few things. a03 was referring to recent advances in our understanding of senescence and the prevention thereof. Each human cell can divide only about 50 times, after which it becomes senescent (mostly non-functional). This is why over time our bodies deteriorate; we’re running out of cell divisions/healing potential. We are achingly close to being able to remove this division limit from the cells of even already living humans. Being “ageless” (not immortal-- one could still be crushed by a bus and die from that) would be like remaining in one’s physical prime (perhaps better) indefinitely. You would be strong, healthy, beautiful (in a mass-marketed “young is beautiful” sort of way) and probably energetic (you know how little kids are so energetic? That may wear off only as a result of age). However, you would still continue to grow wiser with age.
This, of course, is an ideal outcome; it is, however, within the realm of possibility.
In my understanding, it was only an opening hypothesis : “Let’s suppose we’re on the verge of being able to live for centuries, should we go for it?”. I don’t think the OP actually believed we were about to find a cure for old age.
Anyway, I sign immediatly. There’s so much interesting thing to do we won’t be able to do, so much wonderful place to see we won’t be able to see, some many persons to meet we won’t be able to meet. Certainly, some centuries of life would be more than welcome.
Max the Immortal mentions limited senescence (50 cell reproductions, then expiration). Research is underway to use telomerase to indefinitely expand the frequency of cell reproduction. Telomerase is the enzyme that perpetuates certain cancer cell reproduction.
If telomerase therapy, coupled with cellular repair and maintenance using nanotechnology, is successful, we have potential to live hundreds of years.
The concept of living hundreds of years is threatening, due to lifelong teaching that we are genetically or divinely sentenced to die within a century. A spherical earth was threatening to the flat world mentality of the past.
Get ready for an extra hundred years. You probably have little or no choice, anyway, unless you are already too old to stay around for the advancements in science.
Like clairobscur mentioned, when we take away the limitation of time on our lives there are so many more things we can achieve.
Of course we may just adjust to living five hundred years and still be complaining on our 487th Birthday…
“I should have seen Venus while I was only two hundred, what a waste”
What I think is important is the condition in which we will live out these extra years. I would prefer to live two hundred years feeling 18 rahter than 105. But how mature would I feel? I can understand how science could revive the body and make someone feel physically young (removing the effect of years of aging) but I dont know how this would effect the mind (reformat the brain?). Is the mind capable of holding memories and experience for more than about a century?
Ken Macleod’s “The Stone Canal” series of books involve the characters living for hundreds of years and he explores some of these issues. A two hundred year old looks 25 but you can sense the wisdom in them.
http://www.infinityplus.co.uk/nonfiction/canal.htm
I only hope that I haven’t missed my chance to live forever. And thats physically not spiritually OK.
Actually, that’s not what I feel threatened by. My grandmother, who’s 83, between pensions and social security, is barely getting by financially. If she were to live another hundred years, she would find herself in pretty severe financial difficulty.
Why? Wouldn’t the opposite be true? As it stands today, we spend 25-30 years of our lives preparing for a career, then we spend the first 10 years of that career paying off loans and making relatively low pay. After 25 years in our careers we might have our mortgages paid off and finally be making some real money, at which point we get ready to retire.
Forget about living 500 years - if we even added 50 productive years to the human lifespan we would all be a lot wealthier.
There are a number of promising avenues for longevity research. Telomerase is one of them. There was also another report not long ago about some enzyme (something-A, can’t remember) that had radically increased the lifespan of some lab animals. I can’t find the report now, but it looked quite promising.
In 500 years we will have participated in 30+ careers. Most of which will be careers utilizing our favorite interests and activities, not just paying the bills or acting out parent-imposed ambitions or careers entered into to impress others.
closed quotation tags - UB
[Edited by UncleBeer on 11-23-2001 at 02:53 PM]
She will be revitalized with medical advances and will be actively earning her own keep.
closed quotation tags - UB
[Edited by UncleBeer on 11-23-2001 at 02:54 PM]
My mind has already forgotten several memories. I’m not too worried about remembering everything, just pleasant stuff like my dad’s smile and my kid’s playing in the park.
Hypnosis will be developed to reconstruct memories we seek out. Those memories will be integrated into virtual reality and we will be able to once again interact with loved ones who didn’t get to stay.
They won’t be revived, but we will get to virtually make amends for our injustices against them and tell them once more how much we appreciated their presence in our lives.
Computers will help us record and store things we choose to remember. Video tapes will have years or memory, not 6 hours. Video cameras will be attached to the middle of the rim of one’s glasses because the xcam2 will be shrunk to the size of the head of the screw that attaches the ear piece to the glasses. Memory chips and remote transmission chips will be stored in the little rubbery nose piece that keeps the glasses from wearing holes in the skin. The 2-hour battery will last 3 1/2 years before replacement.
closed quotation tags - UB
[Edited by UncleBeer on 11-23-2001 at 02:57 PM]
Shortly we will learn to quit ‘shoulding all over ourselves’.
We will use disapproval for correctional action only, not complaining.
closed quotation tags - UB
[Edited by UncleBeer on 11-23-2001 at 02:58 PM]
…
What makes you think we’re not already keeping it a secret until we develop strategy to distribute the treatment?
…
…and who would want to have sex with someone with 150 year old skin? Let’s euthanize anyone who can’t run 4 miles without gasping.
closed quotation tags - UB
[Edited by UncleBeer on 11-23-2001 at 02:59 PM]
…
Japan has answers for those concerned about overcrowding.
Safe contraceptive innoculations will be available soon at prices less than aspirin.
The ocean bottoms offer real estate rich in natural resourses. Not much smog there, by the way.
closed quotation tags - UB
[Edited by UncleBeer on 11-23-2001 at 03:00 PM]
…
It’s a myth that The human body was designed only to survive through reproductive years, and into grandparenting.
Check with the Designer before quoting His intentions.
closed quotation tags - UB
[Edited by UncleBeer on 11-23-2001 at 03:02 PM]