Indefinite lifespan - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I remember as a child that you'd sometimes hear about efforts to extend lifespans perhaps indefinitely. At some point you stopped hearing anyone even talking about this in the realm of some far off future epoch. It seems the subject is not even discussed anymore as something science should investigate.

What do you think about it? Wouldn't it be great if someday, there could be a cure for death? That there would truly be a last generation that could live forever? Of course, it would be impossible for that to happen, but what about extending the average lifespan beyond the absolute maximum of 105 or so? What about the average lifespan being 150, and the maximum at 250? The average lifespan has increased over the past 150 years but we've not yet been able to extend life beyond the natural biological maximum. Its been a matter of preventing diseases and accidents, death in childbirth, etc, that killed large numbers before they reached the natural lifespan of 75 to 100 years, not extending it beyond this natural limit (a few people always reached these ages, its the average lifespan that has increased).

Should this be something we spend money or research time on? If not, why not? How cool would it be for future generations to get to live longer? Sure, you'd have to have some policies to limit reproduction from overpopulating things, but I'm sure people would be willing to give up having as many kids to live to age 200 or more. Where is the leadership today on this issue?

The human brain atrophies though. Even if we figure out how to repair the rest of the body, everyone would eventually suffer from severe dementia once they got old enough.

Who would want to live for 50 years of adult underwear?

If people lived for 150-200 years maybe we'd have attention spans that allowed us to actually get things done well.

The SENS movement is all about extending the "healthy life span". Granted, this happens naturally in a lot of cases (my 76 year old grandfather is in the same condition as many people I know in their 40s and 50s), but they're pushing for extending that healthy life into the hundreds. It's still discussed, but it's been relegated to the pseudo-transhumanist community.

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During the journey we commonly forget its goal. Almost every profession is chosen as a means to an end but continued as an end in itself. Forgetting our objectives is the most frequent act of stupidity.
-Friedrich Nietzsche, The Wanderer and his Shadow

All good socialists have villas in Southern France. That's not the point.
-Eurosocialist

I'm sure China is excited about the idea.

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“For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.” - Carl Sagan

Curing death would be a horrible thing I am sure. One of my favorite movies,Zardoz, deals with this issue very effectively:

Zardoz - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

As Zed divines the nature of the Vortex and its problems, the Eternals use him to fight their internecine quarrels. Led by Consuella, the Eternals decide to kill Zed and age Friend. Zed escapes, and aided by May and Friend, learns the Eternals' knowledge and the Vortex's origin in order to destroy the Tabernacle. Zed helps the Exterminators invade the Vortex and kill most of the Eternals — who welcome death and freedom from their eternal but boring existence. Some Eternals escape the Vortex's destruction, heading out to a new life among the Brutals.
Zardoz ends in a wordless sequence of images accompanied by Beethoven's Seventh Symphony. Zed and Consuella, dressed in matching green suits, sit next to each other in the cave-like stone head and age in time lapse. A child appears and ages as well; at adolescence he stands and leaves his parents, looking back over his shoulder. As the two continue rapidly aging, they hold hands. Eventually they turn into dry skeletons, still holding hands. Above them is seen the outlines in pigment of two open hands in the style of early cave paintings. To the left of the hand paintings hangs Zed's gun, now rusted and useless.

LOL.



I think I've found my Halloween costume...

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“For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.” - Carl Sagan

It IS great, isnt it? Just trying to be of service.

I don't think that this is a question of if, but when. I would imagine that in the next century the average lifespan will already pass 100 years. A few more centuries, and it probably extends to 'indefinite'. As nanotechnology and understanding of the cellular level of the body improves, solutions will be found for the problem of cellular aging.

As to spending public money on it, methinks this will not be necessary. I can't imagine anything that could more easily be addressed by supply and demand. I also think that overpopulation would become an issue, but not a serious one. An indefinite human lifespan removes the only true barrier to colonizing the galaxy.

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"Government big enough to supply everything you need is big enough to take everything you have... The course of history shows that as a government grows, liberty decreases."

-Thomas Jefferson

Greetings and Felicitations,

The work towards life extension involves more than simply making people live longer. No one wants to have a long lifespan at the expense of being healthy. There are numerous areas of investigation coming together to create a longer and healthier lifespan.

The greatest work which needs to be done involves repairing damage to the cells of the body and the majority of those are created during replication. Eventually so many errors are created that the body simply cannot repair them. In addition, damage is created by environmental conditions (radiation and toxins) which further exacerbate the problem.

A significant amount of the focus on repairs is research in genetic and viral manipulation of the repair system. Genetic engineering is the key. Of course, there are lot of people who want to live forever who take what I consider insane steps. The strategy of caloric reduction and taking immense amounts of supplements with the idea that this might help are debatable at best.

As the good Dr. has said there are other options being considered after that. The development of nanotechnology and biotechnology will allow for developments that we can't even estimate yet. My favorite option, and the one I am actively hoping for before I die, is uploading your consciousness into a more reliable medium.

Sincerely Yours,
C. David Neely

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Actually, I did hear something about this a few years back. I was studying in the lounge at the law school and a friend came to chat a while. I told her I heard that the person who could live to be 200 is alive today or will be in the next 10 years. She got this far away distant look in her eye.

The next week she left her husband.

A few weeks later, she said it was my comment that was the impetus for her decision. She said that life is just to long to be miserable.

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Where's that barfing smiley!

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What? You don't like Sean Connery? He was hot stuff back then.

That there is Zed from the movie Zardoz .
Funnily enough it applies somewhat to the topic at hand.