Can We Live Forever?
November 05, 2007
BOSTON (Ivanhoe Newswire) — This year, nearly 700,000 people will die from heart disease. Almost 600,000 will be killed by cancer. Another 150,000 will become a victim of stroke. But what if scientists could eliminate disease? Eliminate sickness? If we do everything right, can we live forever? Some people say it could happen sooner than you ever thought possible.
Eighty 90 100 how long do you want to live? Could you live forever?
“Its hard to talk about forever, but we can really talk about repairing all the things that go wrong with our bodies and going indefinitely,” says futurist Ray Kurzweil.
Right now, life expectancy is 80 years for women and 75 years for men. One of the best known futurists in the world, Ray Kurzweil, believes one day, not too far off in the future, humans could live to be 300, even 400 years old.
“The ideas of the sands of time running out will reverse itself in about 15 years,” Kurzweil says.
In the last 10 years, experts say advancements in medicine have added three months a year to our life expectancy. Because of the biotechnology revolution, 10 years from now, Kurzweil believes well be adding a year to our life for every year we live.
“Were making gains in developing, really targeting therapies to really stop these aging processes, and theyll be a thousand times more capable 10 years from now. It really will be a different world,” Kurzweil says.
Kurzweil believes there are three bridges to radical life extension. First, what you can do today to live longer.
“The goal of that is not to live hundreds of years, but just to get me and my baby boomer peers in good shape to a point, only 10 or 15 years from now, when well have a much more mature phase of this biotechnology revolution,” Kurzweil says.
The second bridge to cross: reprogramming our bodies to live longer and healthier.
“With very powerful, targeted pharmaceuticals that will really reprogram our biology away from disease and aging,” Kurzweil says.
Researchers have already cured type-1 diabetes in rats with a device so small you cant even see it. It releases insulin 24-7.
“Well really be able to repair at the cellular, molecular level anything that goes wrong before it manifests itself as a noticeable problem,” Kurzweil says.
And the third bridge: nanotechnology.
“Nanotechnology, where we can have, for example, little nanorobots in our blood stream that go inside and keep us healthy from the inside.”
Scientists at Michigan Institute of Technology are testing a robot as small as a blood cell that can destroy cancer before it becomes a tumor. In 20 years, Kurzweil believes that this will be a reality. Right now, at least 50 experiments are already underway.
“Well really be able to repair, at the cellular, molecular level, anything that goes wrong before it manifests itself as a noticeable problem,” Kurzweil says.
But even with this new technology, not everyone agrees immortality is an option.
“At this point, trying to expand life span indefinitely shouldnt really occupy our time. I think its something not yet achievable and its merely science fiction,” says David Sinclair, Ph.D., a pathologist at Harvard Medical School in Cambridge, Mass., and co-founder of Sirtris Pharmaceuticals.
“The notion that we have the cellular machinery that allows us to live forever without the consequences, I think is ridiculous,” Thomas Perls, M.D., a professor of medicine at Boston University School of Medicine in Boston and Director of the New England Centenarian Study.
Dr. Perls says aging is all about your environment and your genes.
“In order to get to older age in good health, we already know the tricks, and those tricks are not being fat, not smoking, regular exercise, managing your stress well and, I would also say, staying away from the anti-aging quackery,” Dr. Perls says.
Although he does believe that humans are capable of living longer, do we have the discipline?
“I think we should all try to live to our mid-hundreds, and that would entail very good health behaviors. Do I think people will get there? Absolutely not,” Dr. Perls says.
But Kurzweil is still convinced in the next 20 years, we will be able to recondition ourselves and take the first steps towards immortality.
“In todays world, I think we really want to live longer, because theres a lot to live for,” Kurzweil says.
Are you ready to live forever? One day, that decision may be up to you.
Kurzweil also believes man and machine will one day merge, extending the limits of human intelligence and longevity. He says today’s baby boomers just need to stick around for 10 to 15 more years using natural means before science can take over and help them live decades longer than predicted.
FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:
Sirtris Pharmaceuticals
http://www.sirtrispharma.com
info@sirtrispharma.com
Ray and Terry’s Longevity Products
http://www.rayandterrys.com
(877) 263-8263
http://www.kurzweilai.net