Aging as a disease?

Question

I'm sure some of you have heard of this.

Aubrey de Grey argues that some people alive today will live in a robust and youthful fashion for 1,000 years.

De Grey's plans to treat aging as a disease -- and curing it.

De Grey wrote "Ending Aging: The Rejuvenation Breakthroughs That Could Reverse Human Aging in Our Lifetime."

What are your thoughts on this matter? It seems intriguing and actually plausible to think of aging as a treatable disease. Even if we can't extend to 1,000 years or such, maybe it could be to 150-200 years. For instance, if at one time in history, man lived to an average age of 30, would they believe today that we can live to an average of 75 and some live to be 100? And that's just with improving medicine and better overall care. Thoughts?

(Forget the fact about overcrowding the planet, what role religion/God would play and such, just focus on the idea presented.)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/30/AR2007103002222.html

Answer 1

I don't want to live that long. When I get what I came to figure out, figured out I want to get out of here.

Love and blessings Don

Answer 2

One of the interesting paradigm shifts of modern times has been the change in perception in the human body. In ancient times up to the recent past, the human body was seen as a kind of black box, whose workings could only be explained through religious references to a divine creator. With the exponentially accelerating rate of scientific discovery, we now know a LOT more about the innermost workings of life and the human body.

As a result, we can now view life not as a divine, magical process but as a biomechanical system that we can understand--and improve upon. Far from being a perfect creation by a perfect creator, the human body is full of frailties, gross inefficiencies, parts wearing out, bad things (toxins, fats, free radicals) accumulating, disease-causing genetic errors, etc. In short, everything one would expect to see from an imperfect, semi-random evolutionary process.

But at the same time, we can now analyze the human system and seek ways to improve it, in the same way that we improve successive generations of cars or computers. I think the biggest improvements will occur when we can find a way to bypass the frail biological processes of our bodies and substitute systems which simply couldn't arise from evolution. It is time that WE became the watchmakers, to borrow a creationist analogy.

I think you would really enjoy reading "Liberation Biology" by Ronald Bailey. It's all about the coming breakthroughs in biotechnology. There are already some radical advances in the pipeline, like artificial blood that works much better than natural blood, and effective cures for cancer and genetic diseases. The Amazon link to it is below. Also below is a link to a Ray Kurzweil book on the possibility of halting the aging process through technological means that you may find interesting.

Answer 3

It has already been established that there are ways to extend human life spans, by medicine, alternative health treatments, certain foods and vitamin use, and even body augmentation. In the years ahead this and more methods will prolong life but then comes the 1,000,000 question, would anyone want to live that long? Most people are tired of the same old mistakes seen in this world.
Spartawo...

Answer 4

It's pretty obvious that we are hitting a wall that only some kind of genetic engineering will break down. Now that we are living into our 90's and 100's, we are seeing a large number of diseases that we simply aren't evolved to avoid.

Answer 5

a believe is possible, just some research needed from different places and people that lasted as much as 100 years or more from those places and what they did...

Answer 6

while science has proven you can slow down the ageing process through limiting your caloric intake this has negative affects a woman may not ovulate, a youth may permanetly limit their bone density, etc. i think this man sounds like a fraud trying to make lots of money.

Answer 7

it is a conceivable concept...the fountain of youth and all that. however, one thing that cannot be replaced is the brain...it cannot be transplanted like other organs and it is prone to the same disease processes like anywhere else in the body.

Answer 8

I guess working until i am sixty five and retirering is out of the question.

Answer 9

while I think death is inevitable, simple choices like ample rest, good eating and exercise and social interaction can extend one's life

if you life is miserable one tends to self shorten