Since roughly two decades ago researchers started to unravel clues about aging and molecular genetics. Scientists have been able to identify mechanisms and processes of aging. One of the first major breakthroughs in life extension was achieved by Cynthia Kenyon and her teammates in 1993 when they doubled the lifespan of organisms in laboratories.
The lifespan of Caenorhabditis elegans was increased from 20 days to 40 days. The progress continued and by 2005, Kenyon was able to increase the lifespan of the same species by 100 days. The lifespan of the organism had been increased six-fold from 20 days to 120 days.
If we put this into the human perspective, a similar six-fold rise in lifespan would equate to a life expectancy of nearly 500 years. Additionally, scientists are already scrutinizing other means of life extension such as resveratrol, calorie restriction and henceforth.
In various laboratories, it has been shown that the lifespan of several organisms can be extended using similar processes. This applies to mice, yeast, flies and many others. We should also not forget that there are ongoing studies in medical science promising potential cures for cancer and other deadly diseases.
We are unsure what far-reaching ramifications await us with these revolutionary scientific progresses. It is amazing, if we go back some 100 years and evaluate how technology has gone beyond expectations. Breakthroughs are coming faster than we expect and at a speed that mankind can hardly anticipate. Some known fields were exponential progress has been seen again and again are computing, medicine, DNA technology, communication and genomics.
There are manifold progress scenarios. Simply, reflect on the fact that in 1903, Wright brothers flew for the first time, for a total of 12 seconds and at a height of 120 feet. Now changing the pages, some six decades, and we have the astronauts of Apollo 11 landing on the moon. The journey to and back from the moon took roughly a week.
This brings us back again to 1993 when Kenyon’s team could double the lifespan of individual members of C.elegans. Let’s consider 1993 to be the beginning of life-extension. If a parallel progress seen in aeronautics occurs for longevity then in sixty years extreme life extension would be unlocked.
Life-extension works for other organisms but why not for humans! The numbers of years that human-life-extension will realise is somehow less important. The fact that longevity research is occurring and that scientists are not viewing it as a mere possibility but rather a probability enhances our longevity prospects.
Even if life-extension for humans would only progress with a fraction of 500 years let’s say 40 to 50 years, it would represent a great progress.
What will happen to Population?
U.N. population projections are optimistically thinking that the world population will stop growing when it reaches 9 to 10 billion inhabitants. They are currently forecasting that the size of the world population will by 2050 be 9 billion.
In other words, China’s one-child policy might be seen as a lenient strategy. You might have to reconsider your view on the policy. For population to remain stagnant with lifespan of 500 years things have to change. A woman having a lifespan of 500 years would only be allowed to have 4/10ths of a child per century.
If a woman would be allowed to have 0.4 children per century in five centuries it would equate to two children. This would be enough to replace the father and the mother. The population would also remain sustained through a natural replacement rate.
Living long is good but we will have to be abstained from large families.
Source: Increasing Human Lifespan
Wed, Aug 25, 2010
Anti Aging, Immortality, Longevity