We will be able to live to 1,000

[Larry_Oldtimer]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/4003063.stm

Excerpts: By Dr Aubrey de Grey
University of Cambridge

Aubrey de Grey: "The first person to live to 1,000 might be 60 already"

Life expectancy is increasing in the developed world. But Cambridge University geneticist Aubrey de Grey believes it will soon extend dramatically to 1,000. Here, he explains why. . .(more)

I will be 69 next month, so not at all likely for me . . . but how about you younger folks? Are you ready for this? Talk about massive changes in not only longer lives, but in what would have to be done in the way of pensions, life insurance and the like. It would result in a completely different way of life, IMO. ;)

[kathleen]

I haven't read the article yet, Larry, but I definitely plan to do so.

Just a few points before I do:

Predictions like this usually tend to be overly optimistic. It's probably more likely that the first person to successfully use this technology is under 30 (or maybe not even born yet).

But it's getting close, that's for sure, at least I can see it coming (and in my lifetime, I think).

This kind of thing is not going to be widely available - at least not in the beginning. So it's going to be the extremely wealthy that is going to be offered this opportunity and will be the first to take advantage of it.

My point is that unless you are young and born into money, the vast majority of members of this board will die, never taking advantage of this medical technique. :)

[kathleen]

Talk about massive changes in not only longer lives, but in what would have to be done in the way of pensions, life insurance and the like. It would result in a completely different way of life, IMO. ;)

I once read a sci-fi story that dealt with this topic.

What the author imagined was a cycle of careers/retirement - work for say 150 years, retire for 20, work for another 100 years to pay for another decade or two of retirement and so on. ;D

[jeny]

Won't this eventually cause an over population and resource distribution problem?

[Larry_Oldtimer]

kathleen, it depends entirely on how much the technology actually costs . . . like computers, the real costs might well fall rapidly, and if this is the case, there will be no controlling of it. I personally believe that we are on the verge of it becoming a reality.


jeny, over population would be the least part of it. "Resource distribution" is a buzz word term the liberals use to try and get us to think that we who produce have some sort of obligation to feed, house and clothe those who don't, can't, are prevented from or just won't produce. The biggest change would be how people in general think about things. With a relatively short life span, as it is now, far to few save enough to take care of themselves when their productive life ends, as many don't think that they will live long enough to benefit from returns . . . and they are right. Suddenly, with life spans becoming extremely longer, becoming a rich person in one's lifetime would be pretty easy for most, and they would live long enough to enjoy it while they are still physically capable of doing so, and most would recognize that fact. This sort of technological breakthrough would turn the world we know entirely upside down. ;)

[Raider]

Some people are lucky to live to 100. I am not to sure about 1000.

[truelies]

Won't this eventually cause an over population and resource distribution problem?


Nope because the technology will never be made available to more than a few thousand of the very wealthy and powerful who will set themselves up as a permanent ruling class of 'gods'.

[wendy]

I don't want to live a thousand years. Can you imagine how jaded you'd be by the time you hit 500?

We only have a limited amount of time here. Make the most of it and don't use it grasping for more time.

[I-RIGHT-I]

I don't want to live a thousand years. Can you imagine how jaded you'd be by the time you hit 500?

We only have a limited amount of time here. Make the most of it and don't use it grasping for more time.


Scientists see the potential for the human body to last 1000 years and that's because it was designed that way, but it isn't going to happen. God has seen fit to limit our life span to well under one hundred years and that will not change. It's a blessing that most men die. If they were given those extra centennials the evil in this world would be unbearable. Not to mention how jaded Wendy would become.

[wendy]

Scientists see the potential for the human body to last 1000 years and that's because it was designed that way.


LINK?

[I-RIGHT-I]

LINK?


What sort of link would you like? The ones that describe living hundreds of years as routine or the ones that postulate that in a perfect environment that would include perfect nutrition and absence of external pathogens that living hundreds of years would be routine?

[wendy]

First it was 1000, now it's hundreds. ::)

[I-RIGHT-I]

First it was 1000, now it's hundreds. ::)


So hundreds and hundreds is fine and dandy but 1000 is outside the realm of possibility?

[WCP]

Searching for the perfect belch here...then put me down.

BRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARCH!!!

[the bib]

I don't want to live a thousand years. Can you imagine how jaded you'd be by the time you hit 500?

We only have a limited amount of time here. Make the most of it and don't use it grasping for more time.


That was my thought.

But then they say no one wants to live til 90 until they're 89. ;)

I think the natural order of things is fine.

Unless they can make me look, feel and have the health of a 20 year old for 1,000 years, forget it.

And then, IMAGINE being fertile for 900 years?

OMG, you couldn;t keep you children, grandchildren, great ... great, great, great grandchildren in order.

Oh. I had 100 kids who had 100 kids each who had another 100 kids ...

CAN YOU IMAGINE the Christmas bill? ;D

I want to live until I die and I want to die asleep in my bed.

After that, just take the old bones and throw'em on the trash heap. No sense spending good money on 'em ... I won;t need 'em anymore. ;D

[kathleen]

LINK?


No kidding.

We've done quite a bit of research on longevity. Interesting field but there sure are a lot of quacks and crazies in it. ::)

One (legitimate) theory of aging is that every cell contains a cellular clock that stops ticking after a predetermined number of cell reproductions.

This can be changed with the manipulation of our genetics.

Another theory is the general misuse and breakdown of the machine (our human bodies). Again, can be overcome with the growth and cloning of personal body parts. Eliminating the need for organ donations and solving the problem of transplant rejections.

In the future, we'll be able to replace hearts and kidneys and lungs just as easily as replacing our worn out broken teeth. ;D

[kathleen]

Won't this eventually cause an over population and resource distribution problem?


Perhaps, but populations naturally regulate themselves, one way or another.

It tends to be nasty though. Lots of starvation and misery before the population stabilizes to fit it's particular environment.

[NorNec]

I don't want to live a thousand years. Can you imagine how jaded you'd be by the time you hit 500?

We only have a limited amount of time here. Make the most of it and don't use it grasping for more time.



Can you imagine monitoring BN for the 10000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 post?

[NorNec]

Perhaps, but populations naturally regulate themselves, one way or another.

It tends to be nasty though. Lots of starvation and misery before the population stabilizes to fit it's particular environment.



You really think the "Populations" have a collective thought process to "regulate" the rest of the "Populations"? Tell me, how do you "think, or act on your population process"? What "magical" or "creative thinking process" do you employ?

[NorNec]

Perhaps, but populations naturally regulate themselves, one way or another.

It tends to be nasty though. Lots of starvation and misery before the population stabilizes to fit it's particular environment.



We've all seen "Dumb and Dumber" and maybe even, "Dumber and Dumber", but this woman takes the cake.

[Larry_Oldtimer]

http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/05/02/issue/feature_aging.asp

Wandering through the quadrangles and medieval bastions of learning at the University of Cambridge one overcast Sunday afternoon a few months ago, I found myself ruminating on how this venerable place had been a crucible for the scientific revolution that changed humankind’s perceptions of itself and of the world. The notion of Cambridge as a source of grand transformative concepts was very much on my mind that day, because I had traveled to England to meet a contemporary Cantabrigian who aspires to a historical role similar to those enjoyed by Francis Bacon, Isaac Newton, and William Harvey. Aubrey David Nicholas Jasper de Grey is convinced that he has formulated the theoretical means by which human beings might live thousands of years—indefinitely, in fact. (more, lots more)