Ending Aging : Ending the diseases of old age

sxt

There have been alot of angst ridden threads here recently about death and aging. The fear of death and getting old , and what would you do if you knew how long you had left.. etc .I think some people expected the world to end a few weeks ago, so they had made peace with their imminent death

The aging of the human body is an engineering problem that can be fixed. It is inevitable that this will happen. With the rate of Technological progress, it will happen sooner than you think .Just relax , stay healthy , be safe, enjoy yourself and hang in there for a few more decades.

Boombastic

Do you know the 7 signs of ageing?

Fox_In_Socks

Boombastic wrote: »

Do you know the 7 signs of ageing?

Heart?

http://ispeakcomics.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/mati.jpg

Boombastic

Fox_In_Socks wrote: »

Heart?

http://ispeakcomics.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/mati.jpg

that's one alright:pac:

Son Of A Vidic

sxt wrote: »

The aging of the human body is an engineering problem that can be fixed. It is inevitable that this will happen. With the rate of Technological progress, it will happen sooner than you think.

But the speed of such progress will be determined by the positive or negative effects, such potential progress has on corporate profit margins.

The Dagda

sxt wrote: »

There have been alot of angst ridden threads here recently about death and aging. The fear of death and getting old , and what would you do if you knew how long you had left.. etc .I think some people expected the world to end a few weeks ago, so they had made peace with their imminent death

The aging of the human body is an engineering problem that can be fixed. It is inevitable that this will happen. With the rate of Technological progress, it will happen sooner than you think .Just relax , stay healthy , be safe, enjoy yourself and hang in there for a few more decades.

There's loads of "engineering problems" that haven't been solved. I wouldn't be holding my breath on the aging thing, if I were you...

wes

Stopping aging would be rather problematic thing to do. Without aging we would probably see a population explosion unless extreme measures were taken to prevent it.

NIMAN

Too many people are already living too long.

In the future the number of workers will not be able to sustain the number of old folk that need looked after.

sxt

Corvus Maximus wrote: »

But the speed of such progress will be determined by the positive or negative effects, such potential progress has on corporate profit margins.

Yes , Until there is a fundamental breakthrough that shows that these problems can be fixed/ A proof of concept .When for example , it is scientifically proven how to significantly prolong the healthy lifespan of a middle aged mouse . There will be a public demand and hence political demand and corporate drive to apply it to people

Nabber

NIMAN wrote: »

Too many people are already living too long.

In the future the number of workers will not be able to sustain the number of old folk that need looked after.

That applies to certain countries. Just because Western Europe and N. America have this issue. Doesn't make it a world problem of ageing population.

RB94

That would be a gerontological matter.

NegativeCreep

Jesus, who'd want to live forever anyway? I couldn't think of anything worse.

TeddyTedson

One thing is certain in life,
politicians will lie
you WILL die, bitch.

ygolometsipe

its not a disease, its an expression of freedom!

regards
Team America
**** Yeah

DEVEREUX

wes wrote: »

Stopping aging would be rather problematic thing to do. Without aging we would probably see a population explosion unless extreme measures were taken to prevent it.

Probably?

The Dagda

NegativeCreep wrote: »

I couldn't think of anything worse.

Dying tomorrow?!

NegativeCreep

The Dagda wrote: »

Dying tomorrow?!

Meh. Not as bad as living forever.

Duggy747

I'd rather be a healthy 80+ year old with good movement and my mental health up to scratch rather than being 120+ years old, withered in a chair and frequently shìtting my nappy because a banana didn't agree with me.

Anyways, the kids would be getting impatient to get their grubby mitts on my will.

sxt

NegativeCreep wrote: »

Jesus, who'd want to live forever anyway? I couldn't think of anything worse.

It is not about living forever. It is about preventing the current diseases of old age, nobody wants them, and living healthier and longer as a consequence.Everybody would want that.

EoghanIRL

Theoretically it would be possible not to age .
Sharks don't age , if we could find out exactly why we could try and find a way to apply it to Humans

Fox_In_Socks

EoghanIRL wrote: »

Theoretically it would be possible not to age .
Sharks don't age , if we could find out exactly why we could try and find a way to apply it to Humans

How can we harness that power, Eoghan?

GreenWolfe

sxt wrote: »

It is not about living forever. It is about preventing the current diseases of old age, nobody wants them, and living healthier and longer as a consequence.Everybody would want that.

Reminds me of Brave New World. Perfect health until 60, then you die.

sxt

Duggy747 wrote: »

I'd rather be a healthy 80+ year old with good movement and my mental health up to scratch rather than being 120+ years old, withered in a chair and frequently shìtting my nappy because a banana didn't agree with me.

.

When you can fix/repair the diseases of old age , then you would not suffer the consequence of old age/diseases. It is all about prolonging the healthy lifespan of a person.Nobody wants to live longer in ill health. You could be 80 years old and be as healthy and as active as a 40/30/20 year old, dependant on the therapies availible at the time. If you can prolong the healthy lifespan of a person by 10 years at first for example. After 10 years the therapies would have advanced in efficiency again

The Dagda

Fox_In_Socks wrote: »

How can we harness that power, Eoghan?

And where are all the ancient sharks?..

EoghanIRL

The Dagda wrote: »

And where are all the ancient sharks?..

I have no idea . It was on a show on discovery Channel before . It would be cool not to age .

sxt

These are the 7 cause of damage underlying aging. It is an engineering problem which can and will be fixed.

1) cell depletion
2) chromosomal mutations (cancer)
3) mitochrondrial mutations
4) unwanted cells that won't die
5) extracellular crosslinks
6) extracellular junk
7) intracellular junk

"These seven sources of damage are treated as comprehensive because they were all discovered over 20 years ago, and our tools for detecting sources of pathology have improved so greatly over this time, that if there were others to be found, they would be obvious by now. "

http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-sens.htm

VEN

wes wrote: »

Stopping aging would be rather problematic thing to do. Without aging we would probably see a population explosion unless extreme measures were taken to prevent it

not a bad idea, a good culling is on the cards anyway

sxt

wes wrote: »

Stopping aging would be rather problematic thing to do. Without aging we would probably see a population explosion unless extreme measures were taken to prevent it.

When you can fix/repair the damage and effects of aging , that means women of a certain age are not forced to have kids before a certain age...A woman could be any hypothectical age and have her first child..

Canis Lupus

NegativeCreep wrote: »

Jesus, who'd want to live forever anyway? I couldn't think of anything worse.

Not me but if asked if I wanted to live for a very very long time with good health then you can count me in. I reckon if aging could be stopped when you were circa 25 and you went on to live for another couple of hundred years that would be nice (assuming all the other issues involved with having a such a population could be solved. I'm not interested in living to 300+ and constantly having to scrape out an existance).

seamus

sxt wrote: »

When you can fix/repair the damage and effects of aging , that means women of a certain age are not forced to have kids before a certain age...A woman could be any hypothectical age and have her first child..

Indeed, who knows what the effect would be on population dynamics, since there would be no specific time at which any couple needed to have children. Most likely many couples would delay child bearing for quite some time, maybe 40 or 50 years. It could even result in a reduction in birth rates as people see no need to have children because it's no longer the natural order of things that you live, procreate and die.
Poorer and uneducated people would probably still continue to breed at relatively high levels, which could generate social problems of its own as the volume of taxpayers stays relatively static while the volume of unemployment and benefits claimants increases.
Economically this could work fine as the wealthier taxpayers generate more income (and therefore pay more tax) by selling stuff to the lower earners, but it could result in a very pronounced wealth gap as the middle classes slowly disappear until all you basically have are a tiny number of exceptionally wealthy earners and a massive group of very low wage earners.

Mr Benevolent

Uh, conquering aging would lead to a progressive squeeze of public services and eventual complete collapse of the economy as everyone will be retired.

Snake Pliisken

Of course there are problems related to an end to age related death, every situation brings with it a host of unique problems. I think the problems we face now are just as daunting as the hypotheticals we'de be faced with after conquering death. Here's Rasputin talking about the reality of the aging problem/solution.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8iYpxRXlboQ

And here's a chocolates n' roses view of the future and technology that's not really about the biological problem, but dies address living forever(or close to it)!
http://www.skyhunter.com/marcs/GentleSeduction.html

seamus

Confab wrote: »

Uh, conquering aging would lead to a progressive squeeze of public services and eventual complete collapse of the economy as everyone will be retired.

Well obviously retirement would become meaningless and any mandatory retirement or pensions would be abolished or moved to the "new" upper aging limit.

We're in trouble in that regard as it is. Mandatory retirement primarily was to avoid the scenario where a infirm/ill old person would not be required to continue working in order to provide for themselves. Not only does this serve a humanitarian purpose, but it also improves productivity and frees up space in the workforce for younger workers.
Originally it wouldn't have been intended that those who retire can swan off to spend 10+ years tending their garden and playing golf in good health. Instead, those who hadn't already died before retirement age (and most did) would typically have less than 5 years of iffy health before shuffling off.

In modern terms if we were to be looking to realign ourselves with the original retirement model, retirement age should be closer to 75 than 65. Of course since then our justification of retirement has changed to more of a humanitarian one than a fiscal one, so there would be little appetite to bring it up to 75. Nevertheless, pensions have to be paid, so I suspect that by the time I'm done working, retirement age will be at 70, or nearly there.

Capt'n Midnight

sxt wrote: »

The aging of the human body is an engineering problem that can be fixed. It is inevitable that this will happen. With the rate of Technological progress, it will happen sooner than you think .Just relax , stay healthy , be safe, enjoy yourself and hang in there for a few more decades.

The Victorians thought that the right diet would enable you to live forever.

The Bible gives the life of man as three score and ten or eighty if you have good health http://bible.cc/psalms/90-10.htm That's from at least 489 BC and probably 1,000 BC (it's attributed to Moses so possibly 1300 to 1600 BC)

So longevity hasn't gone up much in the last 3,000 years give or take even though for the vast majority of humans we've eradicated many of the causes of premature death like malnutrition, war, disease, slavery etc.

http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0005140.html
The remaining years of life of a 40 year old in the US have gone up from 27.9 in 1850 to 38 in 2004.

A seventy year old now lives 3 and a half years longer than they did 163 years ago

Back in 1850 there was no concept of germs or hygiene the way we understand now, no antibiotics, hospitals were death traps, there was no social security just look at what happened here !


Anyway
Due to bad diet and lack of exercise many of us will not live as long as our parents.

sxt

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

The Victorians thought that the right diet would enable you to live forever.

The Bible gives the life of man as three score and ten or eighty if you have good health http://bible.cc/psalms/90-10.htm That's from at least 489 BC and probably 1,000 BC (it's attributed to Moses so possibly 1300 to 1600 BC)

So longevity hasn't gone up much in the last 3,000 years give or take even though for the vast majority of humans we've eradicated many of the causes of premature death like malnutrition, war, disease, slavery etc.

http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0005140.html
The remaining years of life of a 40 year old in the US have gone up from 27.9 in 1850 to 38 in 2004.

A seventy year old now lives 3 and a half years longer than they did 163 years ago

Back in 1850 there was no concept of germs or hygiene the way we understand now, no antibiotics, hospitals were death traps, there was no social security just look at what happened here !


Anyway
Due to bad diet and lack of exercise many of us will not live as long as our parents.

Thats why people need to fix their diet and swap their Xbox 360's and Playstation 3's to a Nintendo Wii! The longer you live the more likely you will benefit from future therapies