Could people live to be 200+ years old?

When you look around at the world what do you see? Do you see the anger, hatred, disrespect, and greed? Do you see the corrupt as they are? The weak, fragile and the strong. Do you normally try to see the good in people? The kind, gentle souls that would go out of their way to help someone in need? The heros that risk their lives on a daily basis. Diverse doesnt even begin to explain what we are as a people.

I ask these questions because if you look at the history of humanity we havent really ever changed. Yes, we drive cars and have computers now, but really, we're no different than the people that walked the earth 1200 years ago. Nothing has changed but our technology.

The point I'm trying to make here is that we evolve through information and knowledge. We always have. The simple fact is, if human beings were stupid, we would be an extinct species. We dont have the ability to defend ourselves from lions or bears without the intelligents to create weapons. We werent given sharp claws or teeth, we were given a brain.

With that said I'd like to discuss religion for a moment because I've always found it curious the way people look at it. Now, if I told you I hit the lottery you would immediately be overun with emotion. Excitement or maybe even jealousy. Now whats the first thing you would ask for though (aside from a million dollars)? PROOF! Right? If I dont supply you with proof, you would discredit the information I've just given you until sufficient proof is produced (ie. me rolling around in a pool full of money). But with religion, most people take everything they read for face value. Why? The people that wrote that book have been dead for many life times, but you wont believe me standing right infront of you telling you I won the lottery. Why?

Even though I find the above interesting, I find something even more interesting. I was raised Catholic and heard stories about this great man called Noah. The man collected 2 of every animal, insect, and even bacteria on earth and put them on an arc. He then, with no food (cant just go off and eat a cow now can you? theres only 2), sailed the arc for 40 days. Whats amazing though is this man is stated to have lived to be over 900 years old. He's not the only person the bible suggests to have lived past the natural expected life span. But how could this be? Simple cuts could spread infection and with no antibiotic you would think the expected life span to drop?

Now for a moment, lets put aside the fact that the man collected all these animals, insects, etc. and focus on how this man could have possibly lived to be that old. Not only him, but many others aswell. We are, like most people, taking religion for face value (I've burned the lottery ticket).

I decided to google the word 'immortal' just to see what would come up. As immortality is the negation of mortality—not dying or not being subject to death. Right. Thank you wikipedia. But scroll down and you can see that the word is mentioned in every religion posted. Most have different meanings for the word, but every single one has the word listed. This of course goes off to create the existence of heaven, hell, and reincarnation. Coincidence or just a primal fear of death? Survival instinct or something more?

I was then led to an article made in 2004 stating that a geneticist from Cambridge University named Aubrey de Grey believes that "Ageing is a physical phenomenon happening to our bodies, so at some point in the future, as medicine becomes more and more powerful, we will inevitably be able to address ageing just as effectively as we address many diseases today.". He then goes on to state "The average age will be in the region of a few thousand years.".

The link to the full article can be found here: news.bbc.co.uk...

--- continued below

--- continued

So with modern medicine we COULD eventually raise our life expectancy to that of what Noah and other people mentioned in the bible and in ancient text were said to experience. COULD is the key word here, but still, how is it possible that Noah was able to achieve this and we still cant? Cures for the most deadly diseases werent even created until rather recently. Well maybe ..they were immune to them?

It's really no secret that most of the people in today's world are unhealthy. Obesity, dehydration, smoking, alcohol, lack of exercise, and the list goes on. A new cure for a new disease or medical issue shows up on our tv almost every week. The simple fact is that human beings werent ment to sit behind a desk 8 hours a day, 5 days a week and in today's society it shows. If you take away modern medication and science how long would you expect the average person TODAY to live? Dont asnwer that.

I decided to continue my 'research' and came across the name Li Ching-Yun. This man claimed to have been born in 1736 and died in 1933. 256 years old and still rather recently. The problem with this is it was never verified so the information might not be accurate. His biography is still a rather good read and I encourage you to check it out: en.wikipedia.org...

I know I havent been able to give the people reading this as much information as I wouldve liked, theres really not that much on the topic available, but the simple question remains; is there something we could be doing to extend our lives? I know most people dont want to hear this but, If we took better care of our bodies, ate less meat and more vegetables and fruit, drank the appropriate amount of water on a daily basis, cut back on the fast food, alcohol, and use of tobaco based products, and exercised the way we were ment to, could we extend our lives? Could we put better use to the new technology and science thats being developed on a daily basis by doing our part?

If the body was made to renew itself. It naturally cleanses the bloodstream. So is death really so natural and could people live to be 200 years old or older in the near future? And with it, how much more overpopulated would the earth become? Everytime you 'fix' one problem, another comes up. So the question is, why are we wasting money on wars, fighting with each other, instead of trying to advance ourselves as a people?

Just something to ponder the next time you take a dump.

I heard something on a documentary, they talked about that the first people to live to be 150+ are most likely alive right now, and that it is very much possible. They're also making great medical break throughs that would slow down the age process with Meds.

Do we really want that?

Chopra says we age because we believe we are supposed to. We grow up and see everyone around us doing it and hear about it etc. so it is programmed into us that it is what you do, you get old and die.

Originally posted by hawkiye
Chopra says we age because we believe we are supposed to. We grow up and see everyone around us doing it and hear about it etc. so it is programmed into us that it is what you do, you get old and die.

Well thats no good..

Personally, I think 80 years or so of this "consciousness" stuff is more than any sentient being should be asked to handle. 200 years sounds like cruel and unusual punishment to me.

Be that as it may, I once read an interesting evolutionary perspective on why people reproduce and die as opposed to being immortal. According to the writer (could have been Jared Diamond; can't remember at the moment), the situation is a result of the inherent dangers and chaos of the physical world -- everything from falling rocks to predatory animals to viral outbreaks.

Suppose, by analogy, that you lived in a place where there were lots and lots of car accidents (and no car insurance). The most rational course of action (assuming one can't buy a tank or accident-impervious vehicle, of course) would be to buy cheap cars that would be likely to fail relatively rapidly even under "normal" conditions. You would buy the cars and replace them often, rather than spending a much larger sum on an expensive car with a longer lifespan under "normal" conditions that would be just as likely to be totaled in an accident. By analogy, genes are more apt to survive in a tough world by jumping from "replacable" body to body (through reproduction and generrational change) than by trying to engineer an impossible "super-body" that would theoretically last longer.

I once read that the Laws of Probability will kill us all anyway!

Statistically, the longer we live the higher the chance of involvement in a serious accident or injury. The informal study arrived at 400 years as the maximum probable age before a cartoonish, calamitous catastrophe snuffed us out.

You must live behind rose color speks.
When i lokk around a. i see secretarys telling lies, coppers looking to make fine quotas,
people back biteing, this world sucks 60 years is enough for anyones stomach.unless its just round here were i live,i am not the only one who see this ,only time life is good is before 30years old then it starts to make you have a reality check.

Isn't it greedy as heck to want to live forever though?
I mean, whatever happened to wanting to live a good life, die and leave something for the younger generations?

Flowers bud, they bloom, the produce their seed, the seed matures, the flower falls off the bush. Oh no, let's live until we are 200! Think of all the stuff we can hoard in that amount of time!

I heard some friends talking the other day, all fairly well to do women in their 40's, 50's. "I want to sell my house and live in a retirement home, one of those nice ones where they wait on you hand and foot."

I personally hope to live until my grandkids are teens, (so I can help with them) die without a lot of $$ medical care, and leave whatever I have to my offspring.

Originally posted by hadriana
Isn't it greedy as heck to want to live forever though?
I mean, whatever happened to wanting to live a good life, die and leave something for the younger generations?

Flowers bud, they bloom, the produce their seed, the seed matures, the flower falls off the bush. Oh no, let's live until we are 200! Think of all the stuff we can hoard in that amount of time!

I heard some friends talking the other day, all fairly well to do women in their 40's, 50's. "I want to sell my house and live in a retirement home, one of those nice ones where they wait on you hand and foot."

I personally hope to live until my grandkids are teens, (so I can help with them) die without a lot of $$ medical care, and leave whatever I have to my offspring.

Maybe 200 was pushing it but I dont think it's greedy to want to be able to see your grand kids grow up and see them have a family of their own. I mean we could argue all day about how long someone is supposed to live until we just cant stand them anymore and want them off the plannet, but to say it's being greedy to not want to die is a bit harsh.

I dont think anyone in the world trulely wants to be immortal, and of course, thats not what I'm proposing. But to be able to live a longer, HEALTHEIR life, sounds reasonable to me?

I also find it very interesting that many of you see your life or life in general to be so painful. "I think 80 years or so of this "consciousness" stuff is more than any sentient being should be asked to handle."? Some of you have a very negative outlook on life. You should really learn to appreciate everything around you instead of complaining about petty things that people 50 years ago werent even able to have.

Well I don't mind being able to live to even 400+ years.

I am going out on a limb here, but I believe the ancients were taller, lived longer and were more intelligent than what popular science tell us. I mean, look at all the structures they build!!! Look at the hieroglyphs...sooooo many things that we don't know anything of.

Imagine what the world would look like, Space travel to distant solar systems, galaxies, underwater domes, etc. I would be like a roamer, traveling from place to place, star system to star system, galaxy to galaxy.......just imagine.

I truly believe one of these days the masses will wake up and will focus on medical and technological advancements rather than millitary advancements.

Just imagine what the world be like.......

Maybe my problem is that I totally believe that people are immortal, just bodies aren't.

They say something like 80% of all wealth is transferred wealth. I heard that statistic on bloomberg or smoething. I can't help but wonder if that is true, then perhaps the problems we are having today might be compounded by the older generations living so long, and in doing so holding onto so much political and economic power.

I certainly think it is vain to want to live to be old so you can pay someone to take care of you in a fancy retirement home and wait on you hand and foot.

reply to post by hawkiye



Exactly. A justification of will should remedy this. As long as it is given regulary.

With all the way the corporations have control of the food sources, we could just end up chemically modified and damaged, but then again human bodies have such amazing capabilties of survival. So we may just survive long enough to see our grandkids grow up and have grandkids of there own? Haha right. I don't know but it would be awesome to live that long.