'We will be able to live to 1,000'

BBC News Online ^ | Friday, December 3, 2004 | Dr, Aubrey de Grey

[governsleastgovernsbest]

Speaking of sleepless nights, consider this scenario:

As you know, products to promote women's sex drive have been in the news, including a patch from Proctor & Gamble called Intrinsa.

However, Katie Couric mentioned on The Today Show this morning that negative side effects from the patch have been reported in women, including increased body hair, acne and a deepened voice.

So, for some real nightmares, imagine a Helen Thomas with an even thicker mustache and deeper voice, now with acne, who is hot to trot with you . . . for 1,000 years!

[Protagoras]

I think the first person to live to 1,000 might be 60 already.

It was nonsense before this line, but at that line, I just stopped reading.

[RoseD]

Thats a great point! Hope its me! Woohoo!

[Momaw Nadon]

[Orange1998]

Thanks for the memories. [smirk]

[numberonepal]

"In the end, there can be only one."

Exactly what I was thinking. Sing me up for regenerative therapy. I'm sure I can stay busy for a 1000 years. After about 150 I'd be ridiculously rich. I imagine in about another 100 years or so private space exploration will be common.

[Krodg]

I wonder if even Mama T has enough money to keep Kerry in Botox for the long.

[Ditto]

However I bet that we discover that God has set things up so that we can't beat old age, or that a 1000-year life turns out to be interminable for some other reason.

The folks who take Genesis word-for-word will tell you that the OT people lived for many hundreds of years.

[Old Professer]

In case of boredom break glass.

[A Ruckus of Dogs]

Not interested. There's going to come a time, many years from now, where I'll want to go on to 'greater adventures' so to speak.

[beckett]

The childishly optimistic timeline (a 60 year old now living may go on to be 1000 years old) undermines any credibility one might assign to the "expert." It also should be noted that not a single actual procedure for extending life is spelled out in the report.

I'm reminded of newspaper accounts from the 60s that predicted flying cars and no more highways by 1980. This kind of stuff is just brain candy and not to be taken seriously.

[underbyte]

science fiction ain't what it used to be...

gee today Japan has some pretty good walking robots, everybody has star trek/Dick Tracy cell Phones, Artificial intelligence is coming along, talking computers, Mach 10 scram jets, Nanotech, Bioengineering agriculture + animal products, Internet etc. Look down the road 30-50 years all the world's geniuses, engineers connected together in the information age real time through the Internet.

Grow new organs? they are probably only a few years away. artificial eyes? they got stuff in labs that shows promising results, bio computers? they are doing that. We are becoming masters of our enviorment manipulating atoms, genes, electrons. Biotech and and nanotech will merge. Nanbot virus that invades repairs cells? Raise your IQ with direct integration to your brain to a quantum computer with all the information of the library of congress?(some hope for democrats) It does not seem far out to me, recent articles have rat brain cells flying a drone aircraft simulator, people moving cursors on a computer screen just by thinking about it, electrodes hooked into the brain to a computer and videocam enabling a blind person to make out shadow images and identify letters.

I robot anyone?

From Cave to agriculture lifespan went from 30 yrs avg to 40
From agriculture to industrial avg went to 70 yrs
We early third wavers with increased eff. and knowledge? If you make it to 80 you will probably make it to 100 and if you make it to 100 you may make it to 100's or a 1,000

[Cacique]

I will wager the car will never be allowed to fly. Look back at back issues of Popular Science for the last 40 years and you will see a lot of prototypes that were never allowed to see the light of day. Too many economic juggernauts have an interest in maintaining the old technology. We are using an internal combustion engine to drive our cars that is technology more than 100 years old. We will continue to maintain it as long as there are petroleum companies making money out of oil consumption, running gas stations and refineries etc.. Too many people depend on things as they are to make a living, hundreds of thousands of jobs etc.. It would take an act of God to change things.

The same applies to health. The pharmaceutical industry depends on sick people, as does the medical industry and hospitals. It's all a business and making money is the rule of thumb. Who wants healthy people who live too long? There is no money in that.

[rockrr]

"I don't know if I want to live in a 40 year old body for the next thousand years."

No kidding! I'm (only) 50 and already cranky!

[cripplecreek]

Oddly enough, you couldn't pay me to be 18 again. Between 25 and 30 would be OK I guess.

[JenB]

"Otherland" is a much better story than "The Matrix" ever tried to be. "The Matrix" is a lot less likely, too - I expect "Otherland"-style VR within the next thirty years or so. Maybe I'll even have a chance to help build it.

[Marie]

This pure bullsh*t. I remember when we were gonna get flying cars. Our cities would be electrified by nuclear power and/or fussion. We would get tv telephones etc. etc.. All this at the 1964 NY world's Fair. Made for great copy but it was still bullsh*t.

Well, some of our cities are powered by nuclear power (we still don't have the fusion thing down yet, but it's getting there) and we do have tv phones. They're not popular on account of how ugly most of us are in the morning, but they do exist and their not too pricey.

No flying cars though. I'm actually grateful for that. I can hardly drive in two dimensions, let alone three! What would the rules be at a 6 way stop?

We should give up on the whole flying car concept and just pave the planet. Then we can all live in floating cities. /8-)

[7thson]

Not if God has anything to say about it!

[RightWhale]

Life expectancy will top out at 600.

Accidental death will be the big one, and no amount of bio-engineering will overcome that.

[longtermmemmory]

bump