The first person to live 1000 years…

3 comments

…is already alive.

At least that is what says a famous and a bit eccentric British gerontologist called Aubrey de Grey.

For some reason, the idea of dying never looked very appealing to me. :P So I always found the field of “Aging”, or better still avoiding it, interesting. So I plan to share with you in this and future posts some of the news recently generated about this.

The main causes of death in the first half of the 20th century (excluding wars) have been mostly beaten. The list was headed by diseases like Tuberculosis, Pneumonia, Influenza, Diarrhea, Neprhitis and Bonchitis.

Heart Disease, then third, leads the chart today. Cancer, then eighth, follows. Stroke, then fifth, completes the top 3. Death rates from all the previously mentioned have drastically decreased.

AS in a video game where you have to beat all the robots before getting to the Big Big Boss, Aubrey de Grey’s basic premise is that in the next several years we will defeat the current main causes of death and meet face to face with the ultimate enemy, who was hiding all these years behind the causes that killed us before we got to him: Aging.

Our body is prepared to live for a limited time. If we are not killed by diseases, the accumulation of “garbage” from our own metabolism and the limited capacity of our cells to divide take care of us.

Aubrey de Grey, and many other scientists like him, work on attacking this final enemy: to repair molecular and cellular damage, to keep all of our tissues young. And if our tissues are young, our body as a whole also is.

The scientific community remains a bit skeptic about de Grey. In 2005, MIT created an award of $20.000 for the person who proved him wrong. So far, no one has claimed it.

Even if living 1000 years with a healthy mind and body sound very appealing as an individual, it poses some huge challenges and problems for humanity as a whole. Overpopulation is only the tip of the iceberg. Exploring the consequences of a World in which we live for a 1000 years will be the subject of future posts.

Meanwhile, I hope Aubrey is right but my personal goal is a bit more modest: to leave healthily over 120 years.

I you want, I would like to get your comment on how long you expect to live.

More info:

His last book

TED Video

Photo: Kaptajn Haddock

Sebas says:

August 13, 2008 at 9:10 am

Santi,

Interesting post! I’ll share a tip with you. I heard a doctor say that If you sit under the sun for about 15 minutes every day, you’ll get all the Vitamin D your body needs.
“Current research has implicated vitamin D deficiency as a major factor in the pathology of at least 17 varieties of cancer as well as heart disease, stroke, hypertension, autoimmune diseases, diabetes, depression, chronic pain, osteoarthritis, osteoporosis, muscle weakness, muscle wasting, birth defects, periodontal disease, and more.” (http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/?gclid=CL-2vpaZi5UCFQOaFQodZCG4rA)
15 minutes under the sun everyday.. Easy way to help your goal of 120 years.

Take care!

Sebas

Nic R says:

August 13, 2008 at 10:20 am

This article reminded me of one I recently read on Wired about a scientist that’s actually attempting to stretch his lifetime as much as possible in order to be alive when “singularity” happens.

http://www.wired.com/medtech/drugs/magazine/16-04/ff_kurzweil?currentPage=all

Santiago B. says:

August 19, 2008 at 8:55 am

@Sebas: As usual, probably what one doctor tells you it would save your life, the other one says would kill you! I love lying under the sun, but it was totally forbidden by my doctor!
@Nic: I plan to blog about the “Singularity” soon!

Santiago Bilinkis l Risk and Reward - Trying to live a life out of the comfort zone