Experts Debate Limit of Aging

Fancy living another 100 years or more? Some experts said on Saturday that scientific advances will one day enable humans to last decades beyond what is now seen as the natural limit of the human life span.

In a presentation at the meeting in San Francisco, Donald Louria, a professor at New Jersey Medical School in Newark said advances in manipulating cells and genes as well as nanotechnology make it likely humans will live in the future beyond what has been possible in the past.

"There is a dramatic and intensive push so that people can live from 120 to 180 years," he said. "Some have suggested that there is no limit and that people could live to 200 or 300 or 500 years."

Outside the conference, many scientists who specialize in aging are skeptical of such claims and say the human body is just not designed to last past about 120 years. Even with healthier lifestyles and less disease, they say failure of the brain and other organs will eventually condemn all humans.

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What do you think? Would you want to live to 120 or 180 if possible? Even if there are ways to lengthen lives physically, what about mentally? Most people's minds become less sharp with old age, how would they be if they lived even longer?

The average life expectancy has already become older over the years with technology and medicine, but when will it become no longer possible or even desirable?

well, having observed what aging has done to my grandparents, I don't want to continue living after my mind has gone. when your children and grandchildren are about as familiar as strangers on the street, what's the point?
I wonder about the ramifications for society if people keep living longer and longer and birth rates keep dropping in industrialized countries. what do we do with all these elderly people? it's fine if they can continue to live on their own and live full lives into their 100s, but what if we can't? do we become a nation of nursing homes? and who pays for it? extending people's lives carries some huge rewards but also some huge risks.

yea but with nanotechnology and stuff u could be 220 and still feel like u were 20... so as our medical technology increases we wont have to be a nation of nursing homes; old people, even those like i mentioned above 200 years etc, could still be contributing to society, and age would not matter at all, for everyone would be effectively 20 years old.

ok question.


if this becomes a reality where do they set the retirement age? 500 years old? 750 years old???

lets be real about this. IF they make it possible for people to live into their 100's easily then the minimum retirement age is gonna sky rocket and a bunch of old people are gonna be mad as hell about it. because you just KNOW there will be those out there who just want to live out their natural life without the aid of science and they will loudly complain about this.

and imagine some 100+ year old person dating a 21 year old. jeebus!



ok i'm leaving this thread, i'm not looking back and i'm not posting in this thread ever again lest i be turned into a pillar of salt.

By the time this becomes even close to fact, I'll be buried and turned to dust.......

I do find the thought to be quite appealing and thought provocative but I wonder if it would "really" be worth living that long. Think of all the implications that would be tied to it.....population controls, etc.
If one could live for 200 years, does that constitute that instead of having two kids today....one could have 4?
Population control.......etc......think about it.

regards
seekerof

Originally posted by ThePrankMonkey
ok question.


if this becomes a reality where do they set the retirement age? 500 years old? 750 years old???

lets be real about this. IF they make it possible for people to live into their 100's easily then the minimum retirement age is gonna sky rocket and a bunch of old people are gonna be mad as hell about it. because you just KNOW there will be those out there who just want to live out their natural life without the aid of science and they will loudly complain about this.

and imagine some 100+ year old person dating a 21 year old. jeebus!



ok i'm leaving this thread, i'm not looking back and i'm not posting in this thread ever again lest i be turned into a pillar of salt.

Very true Prank.....
About every few years or so, the retirement age rises in the US anyhoo.
We will soon be working till death.

regards
seekerof

Millions living today will never die.

(in principle, unless their corporeal form is eviscerated before their consciousness is transferred to the appropriate storage medium).

* futurist hat taken off. leaves *

Originally posted by Seekerof

Originally posted by ThePrankMonkey
ok question.


if this becomes a reality where do they set the retirement age? 500 years old? 750 years old???

lets be real about this. IF they make it possible for people to live into their 100's easily then the minimum retirement age is gonna sky rocket and a bunch of old people are gonna be mad as hell about it. because you just KNOW there will be those out there who just want to live out their natural life without the aid of science and they will loudly complain about this.

and imagine some 100+ year old person dating a 21 year old. jeebus!



ok i'm leaving this thread, i'm not looking back and i'm not posting in this thread ever again lest i be turned into a pillar of salt.

Very true Prank.....
About every few years or so, the retirement age rises in the US anyhoo.
We will soon be working till death.

regards
seekerof

you mean some people arent working till death already???

i think such "medical breakthroughs" are going to have negative repercussions that will far outweigh any good they bring.

we're already having problems with people living longer as it is now, imagine if people live to, lets say, 250 years. you just increased our problems 100 fold if not more.


this is why i am against the government taking my money out of my checks for my "retirement" against my say so. maybe i want to invest that money into something that might actually give me a profit. as it is now they just take and never give back. at least with a 401K you get interest. but this is a whole other matter.



and you made me come back to this thread. arg!