Aug 26, 2007

Do You Want To Live Forever?

Do You Want To Live Forever? is a BBC documentary following the revolutionary life-extension and immortality ideas of this somewhat eccentric scientist, Dr. Aubrey de Grey.

De Grey believes that, within the next 20-30 years, we could extend life indefinitely by addressing seven major factors in the aging process.

I don't know if his particular approach
is the right one, nor if his predictions about the time necessary to achieve human life extension are realistic.

But it does seem clear that the naysayers arguments are soooo lame.

I mean come on :

  • scientists already have already significantly extended animal life spans (nematodes, mice, etc.)
  • humans aren't the longest living species on earth, in fact some animals don't age at all
So the guy, I think it's Olshansky, who comes on and says it can't ever be done, because it hasn't been done yet, is just a moron!

The one argument against that did shake me was the idea that longer life spans would lead to a decline in innovation. But that is just pure speculation, and we have no idea if it's true or not. Maybe scientists living longer could master several fields and make discoveries that weren't possible with the 50 years max, that a scientist can be productive today.

I'm convinced the question is when human life extension will happen, not if it will ever happen.

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