Slashdot Mirror
No Cap On Life Expectancy?
Samarkind writes "An article over at Science Daily (no registration req'd) talks about the average life expectancy for people going up all over the world by an average of 3 months per year. They also say that the somewhat pervasive idea that people can only live so long just isn't true. The kicker that I got from the article was that the average life expectancy for men is 65... isn't that about when I'll retire?" Remember the life expectancy includes all the people who die at age 2 or 15 or 21. If you make it past 25 or so, you've got good odds to make it to 80.
Its good that our lifespans are increasing, however with the current over-population issues, this is a definate double-edge sword. With increased lifespans, we'd have to rework retirement since theres no way that the workforce can support a massive increase in elderly people. The current age for retirement is suited for the current 'normal' lifespan, but would fall apart if we started living 80+ years on average. The economy works because a majority of your population is either working or going to be working. If that balance shifted, where the non-working force was greater than that of the current working force, the problems would be endless. With increased lifespan must come increased retirement. But as we know, most people are definately ready for retirement by 60, and their bodies (and their state of being) is what determines this. If we could both increase lifespan *AND* reduce the aging of the body over that period of time, we would have the best of both worlds. This is by no means impossible, but will really determine if long-living en-mass is a real possibility or not.
"What can a thoughtful man hope for mankind on Earth, given the experience of the past million years? Nothing." -Bokonon
Anyway, apparantly some species of turtle do not age. The only apparent change in their physiology is that the lay more eggs as they grow older. They apparently get smarter, as well. The enzyme that prevents cancer cells from dying of old age seem to give the turtle cells a boost when they are young, but they still don't get cancer, or other age-related diseases. We might break the 1-year/year barrier, yet! :)
Do not confuse duty with what other people expect of you; they are utterly different.Duty is a debt you owe to yourself.
...but what is more important is maintaining a decent quality of life as we age. There's a Greek myth about the goddess Eos, who falls in love with a mortal and asks Zeus to make him immortal. Alas, she neglected to ask that he also stay youthful. He continued to age but death could not reach him.
I have several friends who are caring for parents with Alzheimers and other diseases that don't kill right away but that destroy life in the most fundamental way. I know other elderly people who have suffered heart attacks and strokes and are all there mentally, but are in constant pain and have to severely restrict their activities. A few decades ago these diseases would have killed their victims. Now they wound them and often leave them in a state like poor Tithonus, lover of Eos.
I certainly wouldn't wish an earlier death on any of these people, rather I hope that the medical establishment can come up with ways to help people stay active, lucid, and happy as their bodies age beyond the point that most people reached in the past. This is as important as, perhaps more important than, extending life.
No sig? Sigh...
I suspect the life expectancy for people 60 today is significantly better than life expectancy for 60 year olds 20 years ago, otherwise we wouldn't be seeing an explosion of 65+ year olds (and 80+ and 100+). For there to really be "no cap" on life expectancy though, the maximum human lifespan needs to increase. AFAIK there are no documented cases of humans living much beyond 120. However, at only 3 months/year increase in life expectancy, we won't hit that barrier in this century. By that time (well before it) we'll have figured out how to significantly increase biological human lifespan. If you don't want to count on any such progress, calorie restriction seems to be the only current method we have of possibly extending maximum lifespan. At the other extreme, you could just wait for the singularity to obviate the need for biology.