'We will be able to live to 1,000'

[Don]

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.



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

By Dr Aubrey de Grey
University of Cambridge


Ageing is a physical phenomenon happening to our bodies, so at some point in the future, as medicine becomes more and more powerful, we will inevitably be able to address ageing just as effectively as we address many diseases today.

I claim that we are close to that point because of the SENS (Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence) project to prevent and cure ageing.

It is not just an idea: it's a very detailed plan to repair all the types of molecular and cellular damage that happen to us over time.

And each method to do this is either already working in a preliminary form (in clinical trials) or is based on technologies that already exist and just need to be combined.

This means that all parts of the project should be fully working in mice within just 10 years and we might take only another 10 years to get them all working in humans.

When we get these therapies, we will no longer all get frail and decrepit and dependent as we get older, and eventually succumb to the innumerable ghastly progressive diseases of old age.

We will still die, of course - from crossing the road carelessly, being bitten by snakes, catching a new flu variant etcetera - but not in the drawn-out way in which most of us die at present.

So, will this happen in time for some people alive today? Probably. Since these therapies repair accumulated damage, they are applicable to people in middle age or older who have a fair amount of that damage.

I think the first person to live to 1,000 might be 60 already.

It is very complicated, because ageing is. There are seven major types of molecular and cellular damage that eventually become bad for us - including cells being lost without replacement and mutations in our chromosomes.

Each of these things is potentially fixable by technology that either already exists or is in active development.

The length of life will be much more variable than now, when most people die at a narrow range of ages (65 to 90 or so), because people won't be getting frailer as time passes.

The average age will be in the region of a few thousand years. These numbers are guesses, of course, but they're guided by the rate at which the young die these days.

If you are a reasonably risk-aware teenager today in an affluent, non-violent neighbourhood, you have a risk of dying in the next year of well under one in 1,000, which means that if you stayed that way forever you would have a 50/50 chance of living to over 1,000.

And remember, none of that time would be lived in frailty and debility and dependence - you would be youthful, both physically and mentally, right up to the day you mis-time the speed of that oncoming lorry.

Curing ageing will change society in innumerable ways. Some people are so scared of this that they think we should accept ageing as it is.

I think that is diabolical - it says we should deny people the right to life.

The right to choose to live or to die is the most fundamental right there is; conversely, the duty to give others that opportunity to the best of our ability is the most fundamental duty there is.

There is no difference between saving lives and extending lives, because in both cases we are giving people the chance of more life. To say that we shouldn't cure ageing is ageism, saying that old people are unworthy of medical care.

Playing God?

People also say we will get terribly bored but I say we will have the resources to improve everyone's ability to get the most out of life.

People with a good education and the time to use it never get bored today and can't imagine ever running out of new things they'd like to do.

And finally some people are worried that it would mean playing God and going against nature. But it's unnatural for us to accept the world as we find it.

Ever since we invented fire and the wheel, we've been demonstrating both our ability and our inherent desire to fix things that we don't like about ourselves and our environment.

We would be going against that most fundamental aspect of what it is to be human if we decided that something so horrible as everyone getting frail and decrepit and dependent was something we should live with forever.

If changing our world is playing God, it is just one more way in which God made us in His image.

[Behshad]

Well there is one member here that is half way there ....

[Everett]

Well there is one member here that is half way there ....

Is it you???

[Behshad]

Well there is one member here that is half way there ....

Is it you???

yes moron, its me ...

[Michigan Girl]

Dear God ...I hope not!!

[Everett]

Dear God ...I hope not!!

You don't look a day over 18

[parfait]

Dear God ...I hope not!!

You don't look a day over 18

Don't be a liar. She's at least 30.

[Don]

Dear God ...I hope not!!

You don't look a day over 18

Don't be a liar. She's at least 30.

X2

[parfait]

Dear God ...I hope not!!

You don't look a day over 18

Don't be a liar. She's at least 30.

X2

I was being gentle dude. Geesh...

...

[Since 78]

Dear God ...I hope not!!

You don't look a day over 18

Don't be a liar. She's at least 30.

X2

[Don]

Dear God ...I hope not!!

You don't look a day over 18

Don't be a liar. She's at least 30.

X2

I was being gentle dude. Geesh...

...

-10?

[Michigan Girl]

LOL ...

[Everett]

LOL ...

You are the one on the left right???

[Michigan Girl]

LOL ...

You are the one on the left right???

That's the lovely Michigan Deb ...puhleeze do not insult her, she is much younger and sweeter
than I!!


This is making me LMAO!! Poor Dora The Explorah!!

[StevePerryHair]

LOL ...

You are the one on the left right???

That's the lovely Michgan Deb ...puhleeze do not insult her, she is much younger and sweeter
than I!!


This is making me LMAO!! Poor Dora The Explorah!!

Yes, it's only too bad she only had the one night with us:( Had lots of laughs with Deb!

[Michigan Girl]

LOL ...

You are the one on the left right???

That's the lovely Michigan Deb ...puhleeze do not insult her, she is much younger and sweeter
than I!!


This is making me LMAO!! Poor Dora The Explorah!!

Yes, it's only too bad she only had the one night with us:( Had lots of laughs with Deb!

Yep~~ and then we had to kill her!!



OMG ...I misspelled MICHIGAN!!

[parfait]

Dear God ...I hope not!!

You don't look a day over 18

Don't be a liar. She's at least 30.

X2

I was being gentle dude. Geesh...

...

-10?

The Hoff can agree to that.

[Michigan Girl]

The Hoff can agree to that.

The Hoff can shove it up his ass ...g~boy was closer before you corrected him!!

[parfait]

The Hoff can agree to that.

The Hoff can shove it up his ass ...g~boy was closer before you corrected him!!

Who cares about age anyway. You know what they say, though:

It's better to have two girls who's 12, than one girl who's 24

[Don]

The Hoff can agree to that.

The Hoff can shove it up his ass ...g~boy was closer before you corrected him!!

Who cares about age anyway. You know what they say, though:

It's better to have two girls who's 12, than one girl who's 24

I see you go by the old saying, Old enough to bleed, old enough to breed or was that Old enough to pee, old enough for me?

[Michigan Girl]

The Hoff can agree to that.

The Hoff can shove it up his ass ...g~boy was closer before you corrected him!!

Who cares about age anyway. You know what they say, though:

It's better to have two girls who's 12, than one girl who's 24

I'm quite certain something about this is sick ... you silly young man!!
Did you mean this?!?! lol!!

[Everett]

The Hoff can agree to that.

The Hoff can shove it up his ass ...g~boy was closer before you corrected him!!

Who cares about age anyway. You know what they say, though:

It's better to have two girls who's 12, than one girl who's 24

You are a sad strange little man.....

[Michigan Girl]

The Hoff can agree to that.

The Hoff can shove it up his ass ...g~boy was closer before you corrected him!!

Who cares about age anyway. You know what they say, though:

It's better to have two girls who's 12, than one girl who's 24

You are a sad strange little man.....

I am CERTAIN he got it backwards!!

[Don]

Lost in translation?

[Everett]

The Hoff can agree to that.

The Hoff can shove it up his ass ...g~boy was closer before you corrected him!!

Who cares about age anyway. You know what they say, though:

It's better to have two girls who's 12, than one girl who's 24

You are a sad strange little man.....

I am CERTAIN he got it backwards!!

only god knows with him....

[Since 78]

Lost in translation?

Bill Murray, Scarlett Johansson. Pretty good flick.

[Don]

Lost in translation?

Bill Murray, Scarlett Johansson. Pretty good flick.

Excellent flick.

[parfait]

The Hoff can agree to that.

The Hoff can shove it up his ass ...g~boy was closer before you corrected him!!

Who cares about age anyway. You know what they say, though:

It's better to have two girls who's 12, than one girl who's 24

I see you go by the old saying, Old enough to bleed, old enough to breed or was that Old enough to pee, old enough for me?

Good one. This one has a certain je ne sais quoi about it:

Old enough to count, old enough to mount.

[Everett]

The Hoff can agree to that.

The Hoff can shove it up his ass ...g~boy was closer before you corrected him!!

Who cares about age anyway. You know what they say, though:

It's better to have two girls who's 12, than one girl who's 24

I see you go by the old saying, Old enough to bleed, old enough to breed or was that Old enough to pee, old enough for me?

Good one. This one has a certain je ne sais quoi about it:

Old enough to count, old enough to mount.

geez you are one sick guy pee pee....

[parfait]

On a serious note:


I read the article about de Grey a while back in GQ, and sure, it seems plausible (theoretically), but it would require a insane funding over a number of years. 500 years; maybe.

Basically: Over time, the body's ability to undergo cell division weakens, thus the likelihood of mutation or harmful oxidation rises, eventually to the point of death. Humans aren't supposed (genetically) to survive longer than to secure the survival of their own genome through children.

de Grey made a 7 point plan, which states every problem that needs to be solved to get "eternal life", but the fact is that each of of those points would be a Nobel prize worthy breakthrough. But good luck to the guy - he got some balls.