A burial ceremony in Island de Maipo, Chile Image Credit: Unsplash freeimages
Death in human is scary and sacred, of a truth, it is the end of all living things. But that natural law is on its way to be defied and brought to naught, because few decades from now, immortality will be negotiable, living forever may just be up for sale to the highest bidder. However, its still a long road ahead and that will be interesting to see how it plays out as i explained further in the course of this article.
To start with, one of fundamental characteristics of living things is dying, and that begins with ageing, the rule of nature is that every living things must die. That principle stands to be altered, there will be living more behind living. Not until this advancement in science and technology fails to pass the testing phase to say the least.
Some group of genetic engineers are planning to dislodge this basic principle of life and make life optional, that is, if you wish and could afford it, you could choose not to die at old age by reversing the ageing process and be forever young.
Does this sounds like a sci-fi? Sure yes!
Unfortunately, these engineers mean business and are out to prove that death would be optional for those who wants to live further at old age and for those who decides to call it a quit after a stressful life, the ageing process would be curable by the year 2045 and only fatal accident could kill a man or a woman, but not getting old.
DEATH AND AGEING EXPLAINED
Before scientifically validating what this genetic engineers, Jose Luis Cordeiro and
David wood one of the pioneer of “SYMBIAN” an operating system company, they stated in their newly published a book; “The Death of Death”. From basic Science, death is the final stage of any living organism, humans and all other higher animals inclusive. While getting old simply put is the process of wear and tears of the body tissue and systems over the years which make the human body frail and fragile at some point in their lifespan say between 65 to 75 years or more as the case may be.
Just like everything in existence, tear and wear is imminent even in none living things. In the human body, the system and the tissues will not recover or be replenished from the many years of tearing and wearing which eventually leads to most natural cause of death. In spite of this natural process, regardless of how many years a body takes to attain old age, this new research is stating that the tear and wear process could be reversed and the body become younger, hence immortality is real and could be achieved and this ground breaking process has a timeline, much more closer than it was initially scientifically calculated.
An Aged woman Image Credit: Pixabay Commons
REVERSEING AGEING
Scientifically, ageing comes as the end product of DNA Tails referred to as “Telomeres”. With the passage of time and space, these telomeres become weak after several times of damages due to illness and toxic intakes through ingestion of dangerous substances. It then becomes shortened due to time pass and as it becomes shorter, it increases the amount of toxins the body can absorb e.g. polluted air, poisonous gases, chemicals from alcohols and smoking and many more. These are some of the things that shorten the length of telomeres, hence fastening the process of getting old.
Telomeres, the DNA tails which is present in chromosomes with every cell excluding the Red Blood cell and sex cells possess 23 pairs , therefore; once it becomes shorter, it reverse ageing which scientifically males telomeres longer.
THE BEGINNING OF THIS DISCOVERY
There have been a couple of monumental advancement in technology which has aided advance genetic manipulating vices presently, one of the most important one is defying ageing and death with Nanotechnology.
A process that involves changing “bad” genes into healthy ones which will repair the damaged cells in the body, a process that could be achievable with treatments with stem cells and vital organs printing in 3D.
Maybe this sounds too futuristic, but one of the genetic engineers, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), USA based Mr. Cordeiro explains that he and several others who had chosen not to die, and he plans to become younger in thirty years’ time once this procedure has become clinically proven and tested for legit usage. To further support their goals, let me briefly digress on the immortality of some cancer cells.
WHY THIS IS ACHIEVEABLE- A CASE STUDY OF HENRIETTA LACKS
Cancer cells were discovered to be immortal since 1951, a lot of people do not know about this then and now till the story of the first African American woman that died of cervical cancer was documented.
Henrietta Lacks died of cervical cancer on October 4 1951 at John Hopkins Hospital Baltimore Maryland USA. The tumour was removed and preserved by surgeons, most fascinatingly, the cancer cell is still alive till today.
This is the bases of immortality for the genetic engineers, they further explained that in ten years’ time, cancer will be completely curable and mimicking the immortality characteristic of cancer cells is the gateway to cure ageing cells and tissues to make the human body last more than the average mortality rate of 70 to 75years or lower in some other countries.
ELIZABETH PARRISH, THE FIRST ILLEGAL TEST SUBJECT OF THE AGE REVERSING PROCEDURE
In Colombia, where there are fewer laws and regulations against genetic manipulations resides the first human subject, Elizabeth Parrish. Though illegal, she started seeing ageing symptoms, but the treatment still extremely risky and against many western laws, but the treatment is right on course with no side-effects and with the telomere level in the subject blood 20years younger than before (her real age).
COULD THIS BE A WORLD POPULATION CONTROL MECHANISM?
Countries in the Asian Regions like Korean and Japan had banned child bearing in couples, to reduce birth rate each new family could not have more than one child or two as the case may be. This might be a move to encourage the “Forever young” and living forever, with no new generations but with the present generation not getting old and dying, says a comment about the breakthrough age and death defying procedure.
Though there is still enough space for plenty people and enough rooms on earth presently, but not much could be said in the next two to three centuries to come, perhaps this is a means to tackle the birth of the world.
Even though, very soon, people would be able to live in the space, this project seems more viable and more futuristic to sustain the natural resources of the earth rather than absconding into the space, thanks to the ground breaking technological feat, a lot of people who might not be able to afford relocating to Mars might have a second option.
Whether it is a question of playing god is not relevant, by enforcing population control which some countries have already implemented hence ousting child birth and restricting it.
Cambridge, United Kingdom David Wood who is the CEO of the independent futurist consultancy and publisher Delta Wisdom, and MIT based Jose Luis Corderio never stated their interior and ulterior motives in their book presentation in Barcelona, Spain. Whether it is a Government funded population control scheme.
In conclusion, technology when new is disregarded, poorly recognised and might be too exuberant in terms of price tag, the cost of Anti-ageing will not come cheap for now, in fact it has been compared to the price tag placed on most recent state-of-the-art smart phones and devices, but in the end it will eventually be affordable by all when it becomes democratic, and embraced by the entire world.
Thanks for reading.