Living longer.

[zorkan]

I seem to be almost tripping over books on longevity these days, usually written by some bald head who looks his age, or older.
Listened to David Sinclair last night. His book is called Lifespan, and he promotes Resveratrol.
Then there's Outlive by Peter Attia.
Any number of other titles are available, with names like How Not To Age, or How Not To Die.
So you've bought a gym membership, an ant-ageing cream, tubs of vitamin pills, signed up for yoga class.
Then you look in the mirror, if you still dare.

Goes back a least as far as the Epic of Gilgamesh and a magic plant which allowed immortality.
Pity a snake got there first.

Then I read this article.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_extension

Maybe there's a pill coming for outrunning the 2nd law of thermodynamics.
Until then I'm a sceptic.

[billy rubin]

why would one want to live forever?

jonathan swift pilloried the idea of mere longevity in his voyage to Luggnagg, where people lived forever but did not enjoy any freedom from the infirmity that came with age.

anyway, i dunno why people want to live forever. i would rather live well than live longer. like jack london, i would rather be ashes than dust.

[Asmodean]

I agree with Billy.

I want a certain quality to my life. Been there, done that, planted a tree, built a bunch of houses... Yeah. I think there may come a point where I will be content with what's in my rear view mirror without really looking forward to what's in my windshield.

[billy rubin]

vonnegut wrote of a man who was given a choice- to complete his death or walk the galapagos as a ghost for a million years and then choose again for a final time.

after a million years of change nothing that he valued was still recognizeable. when his time was up, he chose to move on.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galápagos_(novel)

[zorkan]

why would one want to live forever?

Not if you were Tithonus.

"Aurora abducted Tithonus and asked Zeus to grant him immortality, which Zeus did. However, she forgot to ask that he also grant eternal youth, so Tithonus soon became a decrepit old man who could not die. Aurora finally transformed him into a grasshopper to relieve him of his sad existence."

There is an episode of Star Trek where a planet is so full of people they crave to be alone.
It has been suggested that living to 150 could be common by next century.
We would have to find a second home.

[zorkan]

vonnegut wrote of a man who was given a choice- to complete his death or walk the galapagos as a ghost for a million years and then choose again for a final time.

I have a book called Darwin's Finches, and from what I understand you wouldn't want to be there for even one year.
Great book, though.

Maybe if the island I was on had a golf course.

[zorkan]

Good point made in a book I read yesterday.
The longevity experts are exploring ways we can live to 150.
But whoever might get there first could decide they should live to 300.
Yet who, quite frankly, is not going to be tired of this world long before then.

https://news.uchicago.edu/why-we-die-and-how-we-can-live-longer-nobel-laureate-venki-ramakrishnan-ep-134

Meanwhile you could try this to increase your telomerase.
https://www.elle.com/life-love/news/a43126/telomeres-mind-body-practices-and-cell-aging/

[Dark Lightning]

My expectation would be that lost telomeres can't be replaced. Entropy, y'know?

[billy rubin]

what about gene splicing at the gamete level to double or triple the length of the telomere section before further mitosis?

tripling the length could theoretically add that extra number of cell divisions.

[Dark Lightning]

I know very little about that kind of biology.

[Asmodean]

I have laymanly wondered about that. Say a cell could divide an limited number of times. Given random mutations and other such "code degradation," how "close" is the "cutoff point" to what may be reasonably expected with regard to the overall usefulness of a cell to its host organism. As in, do they tend to stop dividing hundreds of generations prior to being "too degraded," or have we evolved to "fail" "just before" the point of "uselessness?"

Admittedly though, I'm at best a somewhat-intelligent layman in that field of science. Too "squishy" for me, I guess, so I don't even know if it's a valid line of inquiry. (As in, the answer could well be "it simply does not work that way") Still... Interesting to contemplate from that angle. "Evolved obsolescence." Has anybody coined that?

[billy rubin]

natural selection cannot act on an organisms fitness unless the organism can reproduce or assist close relatives in reproduction. the question that i wonder about is age-induced sterility.

why do so many animals become infertile with age?

living forever is not adaptive unless your genotype continues to leave more offspring behind. but if you can litter the future with your kids forever, your genotype will flourish.

the telomere question is irrelevant if it doesnt allow you to make more babies. elon musk's kids might be able to live forever through use of CRISPER, if i have that right. but who wants more of elon?

[Dark Lightning]

Oh, come on! Galaxy Brain should be the progenitor of a new generation! Just look at all the positive aspects and grand contributions he's made in the world! /s

[Old Seer]

Extending living to 150 years would crash the existing systems we're under presently. Over population would increase. Puberty would have to (somehow) be extended to age 45 - 55 in order to curb birthrates. It may be be necessary to readjust all civil systems.

[Asmodean]

...The Asmo couldn't collect His pension for another ninety-some years. Do let us not forget that!