Ending Aging : Ending the diseases of old age

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