Woody Allen, an American Director said, “I don’t want to achieve immortality through my work. I want to achieve it by not dying.” In this world that we live in death is considered to be inevitable. It is a spin-off and mindset that must be forgotten. Yet, what would really happen if people had an unlimited time to pursue their work and also be immortals?
Human immortality is currently only a science fiction, and if you were born in the 17th century, than it would be just a fairy tale, as the average life expectancy at that time was only 35 years. Now, the average life-expectancy for a U.S citizen is 78.6 years. In two centuries, the life expectancy has increased more than 100 percent. If this happened concurrently, people would live indefinitely in the near future.
There are different groups of scientists and gerontologists who believe that there is a limit to the potential extension of human lifespan. They say that it is somewhere around 125 years. However, others see the future quite optimistic – a world where centenarians will be walking around with people who are 500 to 1,000 years old The main hinder for an indefinite human lifespan is aging diseases such as cancer, heart disease and dementia. So currently, scientists are focusing on comprehending how to stop the aging process, and how to repair the typical wear and tear occurring in our body.
Scientists have already discovered some proven methods to increase lifespan. For instance, calorie-restriction has successfully increased the lifespan of a few creatures. The calorie restricted diet, consist of lowering calorie consumption by 30 percent and thereafter increasing intake of nutrients. For humans, this diet and eating pattern seem to be very difficult to maintain. So scientists are now trying to properly comprehend the underlining reason why calorie restriction really helps to increase lifespan. Conceiving the pathways could give rise to a potential pill to mimic the effect of the calorie restricted diet.
The advent of new generation of anti-aging pills could help to reduce free radicals; molecules causing accumulative damage to the body. Amidst other potential solutions, resveratrol, which can be found in red wine, acts an ingredient to delay aging through a genetic pathway. Other scientists believe that telomerase, an enzyme which provides protective caps (telomere) to our DNA, holds the secret to human longevity.
There are also thousands of people injecting human growth hormones to try to counteract against the fatal aging process. A train people try their best to miss.
Yet, the challenge of realizing an anti-aging pill is enormous, an experiment that takes a few decades on mice and other animals take roughly 80 years on humans. So any drug to cure aging is decades away from now
Ray Kurzweil, doesn’t want to wait for a 100 years to live longer. According to his so called ‘Singularity’ theory humans and machine will merge together and become one by 2045. Blood and flesh aren’t the strongest material for longevity. If the singularity isn’t going to be realized than other futurists are suggesting the computer back0up system where our brain can be saved into a computer system.
There is a whole legacy of longevity theories and researches conducted, so that we can one day life forever. If we are unable to live until technology permits us to live forever, we can always freeze (cryonize) our body, for future use.
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