Faster please:
Scientists believe that by the 2030s humans could live forever
Humanity’s quest to defy aging is entering a transformative phase. The concept of “Longevity Escape Velocity” (LEV) now serves as a cornerstone in debates over the future of human life.
This idea suggests that advancing medical technology could enable life expectancy to outpace the passage of time, potentially leading to a form of immortality. But such a possibility raises profound ethical, societal, and economic challenges.
LEV borrows its name from physics, where “escape velocity” describes the speed required to break free from a gravitational pull. Applied to aging, it envisions a scenario where biomedical advancements outstrip the aging process, potentially rendering death from old age obsolete. Although still speculative, the theory has gained both ardent supporters and cautious skeptics.
Leading geneticist George Church believes this vision could materialize within our lifetimes. Similarly, Sourav Sinha of the Longevity Vision Fund predicts that with sufficient investment, LEV could be achieved in a few decades. Their optimism is rooted in breakthroughs in gene editing and cellular rejuvenation.
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Dr. Aubrey de Grey, who coined the term LEV, criticizes society’s resignation to aging, likening it to accepting bad weather. His optimism is shared by futurist Ray Kurzweil, who anticipates the arrival of LEV by 2028. However, this timeline seems ambitious given the rigorous approval processes for new medical treatments.
Kurzweil also predicted LEV would be reached by 2024. I figured I would make it that far, and he moved the goalpost. I expect it will be moved again. The only way I see it not moving is if a black market appears for some treatment.
If they really invent a cure for mortality, expect it to be limited to; “Top men.”
I’m skeptical of these longevity claims. Despite lots of claims to the contrary, nobody has a good idea of what leads to extra long life spans.
Actual high end lifespan appears to be getting shorter – what is actually happening is that there are better records on births so people can’t claim to be someone else or to be older than they actually are.
Note that the “long life” clusters of 110+ years are, not coincidentally, areas that have poor records, particularly reaching back a century plus.
Pipe Dream.
Everything that has a beginning also has an end.
Whatever they come up with to beat old age will turn out to be the cause of terminal spontaneous self-immolation and will wipe out the human species.
Like those time travel movies where at the end of the movie you figure out that the time traveler actually caused the event they went back in time to prevent.
Oh…and I missed this angle: Scientists also believe that human beings are killing the earth through “Climate Change”.
So why would they be trying to prolong the lives of the species they think is killing the earth? And even if they succeeded, what would be the point if the earth is dead?
I suppose Elon could ship us all to Mars, so there’s that.
We forget God gets a vote also. But I’m more than positive uncle Murphy is going to be all over this one.
For obvious mathematical reasons, if such a thing were possible, it *could* only exist within a black market… which could prompt some to speculate whether it already exists, and for how long it might have…
For men of honor, there are things worth dying for.
“There are things that gnaw on a man worse than dying” – https://youtu.be/BNSg8qFlCBI