Posted on 04/01/2008 8:59:15 PM PDT by traumer
Secrets to Living Longer with Barbara Walters
Take a guess. How many people are at least 100 years old in the United States? Would you believe more than 84,000 and climbing at an astonishing rate? By the time America's baby boomers reach that milestone, there could be more than a million centenarians.
My new special, "Live to Be 150 ... Can You Do It?" takes you way beyond nips and tucks, Botox and exercise, but rather to the cutting edge of the search for a longer, healthy life.
What you will see could not have happened just a few years ago. Whether you're 20, 40 or 60 years old, living well past 100 could actually be possible.
Over the last two years, I have talked to some of the world's top scientists, who told me about cutting edge breakthroughs in our understanding of how the body ages.
And they showed me how they are already growing human body parts in the lab for implantation into people. The heart research lab at the University of Minnesota took just a few days to grow a living, beating rat heart from stem cells. Amazing.
I also spoke with two scientists in Boston who say that in the next five years, they plan to have a drug on the market that will treat several of the major diseases of aging. This drug is based on the "good stuff" in red wine called resveratrol.
I also dined with a group of calorie restrictors. They weigh and measure every morsel of food they put in their bodies -- and consume 30 percent fewer calories than the average American. These calorie restrictors claim they have incredible energy and improved eyesight and memory. Experts say this is the only proven way to extend life.
And if you are feeling a little apprehension about living longer and longer, don't worry. I met a group of people who have all reached the age of at least 100. And it's not just lucky genes because genes account for only 25 percent of how long we live.
So at 100, could you still drive? Will romance be more than just a sweet memory? The stories of these remarkable centenarians will inspire you and just might calm your fears about getting old.
Such news sends shivers up the spine of the SSI folks. Someone opined that if you put all those 100+ folks in a million person city, it would be awfully....quiet...
Aging well and living a long life is one thing. They need to work at restoring muscle tone and growth for men through their 90's as an interim solution until a full rejuvenation is possible.
Who wants to live to be that old?
The question should be: would you want to do it?
Here's the deal, If I cannot Walk, Talk, wipe my own butt, or travel, forget it.
But give me bionic legs, I'm off to the airport for more skydiving until I die.
Congrats Man. :^)
It might also depend on whether I could still uh, “perform” and if there was anyone that would want me to “perform” with them.
After the whanger goes, what's left worth living for?
The good thing about getting so old you can't do it anymore is that your memory is so bad you thought you actually did do it and it felt just as good........... I guess I'm rambling.
I’m 55 and in good health, but I’m not interested in eating a lettuce diet in hopes of another 95 years!
You are SO mean. Just damn!
“2) A metabolic thermostat that is easy to calculate. If a person is barely out of high school when they marry and have children, then are a grandparent in their early 40s, they most likely have their thermostat set on high and will not live much past their 60s.”
Huh?
If people under 50 now can live to be 150 by any means, they can live forever. This doesn’t mean that they will choose to or that everyone who wants to will get to, but surely, if we don’t destroy ourselves, it’s a good bet in 60 years, people will be able to live for as long as they want.
You only need to crawl (in any condition) to the finish line in a race with exponentially increasing technology. The whole point is just to survive. Eventually, it’s just a matter of getting the contents of your brain copied to a system capable of simulating it.
In several hundred years, a handful of the intelligent beings will be leftovers from humanity, who once walked and talked in their original biological forms and whose brains were copied into a system capable of taking over the physical operations of the brain.
Of course most intelligent beings at that time will likely be 100% artificial and themselves engineered by machines. But some people reading this might win the lotto if they can manage to survive, staying one inch ahead of creeping natural death.
If there were suitable hardware (which there isn’t yet), and suitable software (which there isn’t yet), a machine could operate in such a way so as to think exactly like a particular person (roger penrose would disagree, but marvin minsky agrees: you choose who you believe). For any input ‘x’, the machine would operate exactly as the person would if given the same input.
If a person’s brain were exactly copied in some way, and building such a general purpose brain simulator were possible, then voila, when the machine goes, the person being simulated is thinking and interacting, and if all memories were retained (a very good copy of the brain was made), the person would find him or herself alive and thinking.
The devil is in the details, of course, and machines with higher than human intelligence would need to work very hard to solve such a problem, but if things keep going the way they are, it’s fair to assume such machines will be around in a matter of a few decades. They surely will be around eventually. It’s just a matter of when—and also a matter of, once machines wake up, will they feel like keeping us around.
Again. Just arrive at the finish line with your brain intact so it can be mapped, and you’ve got a snowball’s chance in hell not only of living for a long time but maybe indefinitely.
I’m just saying don’t give up hope, the landscape is changing every day.
I have no doubt at all that within ten years, they will have a pill you can take that will add twenty lean, productive and youthful years to your life.
There already life extension programs you can sign up for. Using proven therapies.
But it’ll cost ya an arm and a leg.
I know. I read alot of abstracts and do alot of research on the issues. A few days ago, I sent out an email to select Freeper Friends about where we stand life-extension wise.
For instance, did you know that cells cultured with high amounts of Vitamin E live TWICE as long as regular cells? I can point you at the studies.
There have been studies done on rats that have made normal rats that live for about 900 days to live until they were 2500 days, with little decrease in vitality.
It’s an amazing field.
Xer Ping
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“Crikey, does this mean Hugh Hefner is going to be hanging out with 20 year old chicks for another 60 years?”
I’m not even sure he’s ‘hanging out’ these days....
hey think about it, how long can your 401k last? I can’t get mine to do 50 years and ss will be nill after another quarter of a century.
Yes, but do I *want* to do it? ;-)
The Baby Boomers are already going to be living long enough! They have already caused enough trouble with the worst yet to come. For the sake of generations to follow, they just don't need to be around any longer then they already are going be.
Once they are all gone, then let's talk about extending life.
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