🐢What is radical life extension?

& is there a limit on how long we can keep ourselves alive?

For much of history, the average human life expectancy was far lower than it is today.

Few humans lived beyond 50, and the average life expectancy - brought down by a high child mortality rate - could have been as low as 30 years old.

Things have changed dramatically over the last 120 years.

Technological & medical advances have led humans to live longer than ever before, with the average life expectancy topping 80 years old in many countries.

Research shows that the average human in a high-income country today will live about 30 years longer than someone born in 1900.

There are a few factors that have pushed the average death age up over the last century:

  • significantly lower child mortality rates 🧒

  • the development of vaccines for smallpox, polio, and other illnesses 💉

  • improved public health & healthcare systems 🏥

These developments have enabled something called radical life extension.

Radical life extension is the idea that humanity can continue to use technological and medical advances to live to older ages.

Some people even predict that humans living today will consistently be able to reach the age of 100 consistently, as scientists continue to develop treatments for diseases & illnesses that affect older adults.

Some proposed technologies that could enable radical life extension are:

  • genetic engineering 🧬

  • stem cell therapies 🦠

  • artificial organs 🧠

  • bionic enhancements 🦵

Some researchers, known as gerontologists, are even experimenting with ways of slowing aging in mice and monkeys, hoping to generate insights that can help humans to live longer.

National Geographic get it wrong - this baby will live forever

One scientist named Jay Olshansky is throwing cold water on the idealism of many radical life extension advocates, saying that radical life extension beyond current levels is “implausible.”

His new study predicts that just 5% of baby girls and 2% of baby boys born today will reach the age of 100.

He explained to CNN that aging, not disease, is the great barrier to radical life extension:

Human Longevity May Have Reached its Upper Limit | Scientific American

Should we live forever? 

There are also questions about whether we should be trying to extend human life spans in the first place.

Just look at the picture below, and you’ll start to question the wisdom of this idea.

Futurama: 12 Plot-Holes That Almost Ruin The Show – Page 3

In an essay about the desirability of immortality, philosopher Bernard Williams argued that an “endless life would be a meaningless one.”

He illustrated his point by referring to a play about an immortality elixir. In the play:

While there are groups like the Coalition for Radical Life Extension that advocate for more investment in anti-aging research, it’s unclear whether the average person is even interested in living to be older than 100.

A 2013 survey found that a majority of people (56%) surveyed people would not personally want medical treatments that would allow them to live to be 120+.

A bigger majority (68%), however, did support the idea that other people should be able to pursue such treatments if they want to.

In his article, Olshansky & his co-authors argue that “humanity’s battle for a long life has largely been accomplished.”

They write that this is not “a pessimistic view of the longevity game," but rather one that accounts for the incredible increases in life expectancy that we've seen over the last century.

Instead of bemoaning the lack of further progress on radical life extension in the early 21st century, we should celebrate:

As he lay dying of an aneurysm in 1955, Albert Einstein refused surgery and said:

“It is tasteless to prolong life artificially. I have done my share, it is time to go. I will do it elegantly.”

We can also remember the immortal words of humorist Herb Caen:

I’ll finish today’s newsletter with a great song that touches on these themes: Live Forever by Oasis.

ART OF THE DAY

The Crown of Immortality, held by the allegorical figure Eterna (Eternity) on the Swedish House of Knights fresco by David Klöcker Ehrenstrahl