Life extension and technology

[peilthetraveler]

I remember reading about this man who lived to past 150 years old.(I know it took place sometime in the last 400-800 years or so but dont remember exactly when) He basically lived the same way most of the time. He was a farmer and always ate the same meals and growing the same crops and doing the same work every day. (I believe it was corn & potatos if i remember right, no meat in his diet) The king at the time was impressed that this man lived so long and wanted to know his secret, so he called for him to come to the castle. The man went to the castle and the King had a big feast for the man with all kinds of meats and many different foods. The farmer ate these foods and a few days later he died. Some say his body had adapted so well to his diet and thats what caused him to live so long and doing hard work on the farm kept him strong. Then eatting this greasy food was too much of a change. Sounds plausable because I know when you eat raw fruits & veggies for a couple weeks straight then try eatting a pizza or burger, it makes you feel sick as hell.

 

[nitro]

Quote from Roark:

You're going on ignore for starting too many useless, dumb-ass threads. Don't you have some back testing or something you could do when you're bored?

Thus, to sum up our discussion of the value of philosophy; Philosophy is to be studied, not for the sake of any definite answers to its questions since no definite answers can, as a rule, be known to be true, but rather for the sake of the questions themselves; because these questions enlarge our conception of what is possible, enrich our intellectual imagination and diminish the dogmatic assurance which closes the mind against speculation; but above all because, through the greatness of the universe which philosophy contemplates, the mind also is rendered great, and becomes capable of that union with the universe which constitutes its highest good. - Bertrand Russell

 

[nutmeg]

I take comfort in the fact that I will outlive "some" people and outlive assorted problems. 1000 years might be too long to wait {:>) for these things to go away.

Suppose you were branded ( ruined rep or a felon, etc) in the first 100 years of your life 900 years living the life with the consequences.

Probably more of the same ole same ole just the duration would change.

 

[olias]

Quote from peilthetraveler:

I remember reading about this man who lived to past 150 years old.(I know it took place sometime in the last 400-800 years or so but dont remember exactly when) He basically lived the same way most of the time. He was a farmer and always ate the same meals and growing the same crops and doing the same work every day. (I believe it was corn & potatos if i remember right, no meat in his diet) The king at the time was impressed that this man lived so long and wanted to know his secret, so he called for him to come to the castle. The man went to the castle and the King had a big feast for the man with all kinds of meats and many different foods. The farmer ate these foods and a few days later he died. Some say his body had adapted so well to his diet and thats what caused him to live so long and doing hard work on the farm kept him strong. Then eatting this greasy food was too much of a change. Sounds plausable because I know when you eat raw fruits & veggies for a couple weeks straight then try eatting a pizza or burger, it makes you feel sick as hell.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longevity_myths
I suspect that story is accounted for somewhere in there

 

[drcha]

At the present time, in developed societies, the most common cause of death is cardiovascular disease. Tufts is pretty big in these longevity studies. People who live into their 100's tend to have an excellent natural cholesterol profile. They have a lot of high density lipoprotein (HDL, i.e. "good" cholesterol) or they have certain subtypes of HDL that provide increased protection against vascular diseases. There are genes for these things. You either have the genes, or you don't.

Until we can get past all that, as well as understand the immune system well enough to do something about cancers, all this stuff about how cells age is not going to do us much good, at least in the developed world.

Our current treatments for cancer are crude beyond belief. Imagine a fly in a large building. You really want to kill the fly, but you need it to land so you can smack it, and you have no way of knowing where it is going to land next. So you have to blow up the whole building with a big bomb. That is what chemotherapy and radiation are like.

 

[pspr]

I seem to recall reading that not only are the cells in our bodies slowly deteriorated by free radicals but they also have a programmed number of divisions they can perform. Thus, we get old and we die. To solve both is a big task indeed, not to mention you still have the risk of accident and disease.

Personally, I thought this solutions were close as we got into the 1990's but as slow as progress has been going, I don't think it will happen in the next 50 years. Extending life to 150 may happen but stopping the aging clock is still a long, long way off.

 

[BCE]

Quote from BCE:

Ray Kurzweil
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raymond_Kurzweil
The Singularity
http://www.singularity.com/
The Singularity is Near
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Singularity_Is_Near

You really should look into this. The only person to comment on this so far is NoDoji n a PM.

Also Brandon Colby has some interesting thoughts.

http://www.outsmartyourgenes.com/

http://www.prweb.com/releases/OutsmartYourGenes/DrBrandonColby/prweb3838114.htm

 

[shortie]

Quote from pspr:

I seem to recall reading that not only are the cells in our bodies slowly deteriorated by free radicals but they also have a programmed number of divisions they can perform. Thus, we get old and we die. To solve both is a big task indeed, not to mention you still have the risk of accident and disease.

Personally, I thought this solutions were close as we got into the 1990's but as slow as progress has been going, I don't think it will happen in the next 50 years. Extending life to 150 may happen but stopping the aging clock is still a long, long way off.

the first milestone is to extend the life span of people by mimicking the effect of calorie restriction via drugs. the animals on a calorie restricted diet gain maybe 50-100% compared to their natural life span. we should be able to live to 110-150 relatively soon (the first generation anti-aging drugs to be available within 10 years maybe?)

 

[peilthetraveler]

I plan to live forever and you know what? So far, so good!

 

[ammo]

Quote from drcha:

At the present time, in developed societies, the most common cause of death is cardiovascular disease. even if you cancel out all the free radicals,your heart just wears out http://www.regenocyte.com/ there is a scam site out there also...just food for thought