“I don't want to achieve immortality through my work. I want to achieve it by not dying." - Woody Allen
We have been raised with the viewpoint that death is inescapable, so we must believe the legacy of what we will leave behind us. But what if we had unlimited time to accomplish our life's work. What if we didn't have to die?
The concept of living forever may appear like one that's restricted to fairy tales, especially if you were born in eighteenth century, when the mean life expectancy was thirty five years. Now, although, male in the United States have a life expectancy of 75 years and female have 80. If life expectancy could reached more than double in two hundred years, then might it do the same again? Would it do so infinitely?
Some researchers think that there's some restriction on how many years a human being can live, the maximum in their prospective would be 125. While others see a world in which we have people more than 100 walking around with people who have lived for 500 or 1,000 years. Diseases related to growing older, like heart disease, currently restricting us from reaching that point. Our body parts become useless from use. In the arduous search for eternal life, then, researchers are focused on how to block aging from happening within the body.
One technique that clearly accelerated the lifespan of living beings such as mice is a calorie-restricted diet. To adapt this diet, you have to cut your caloric consumption by 30% while still taking all necessary nutrients. This diet plan has proven very difficult for humans to follow, so scientists are trying to find out how, exactly, lesser number of calories could lengthen a life. If they could solve that puzzle, they would be able to reproduce the mechanism in pill form.
Anti-aging pills can also be used to stop the production of free radicals, which are molecules that is responsible for accelerating damage within the body as we grow up. Scientists are also keeping in mind whether compounds like resveratrol, which is in red wine, could be functional in pill form, as resveratrol might have the capability to obstruct with the aging process at the genetic range. Some researchers believe that aging enzyme telomerase, that repairs protective sheathing on cells is the answer, while others would be centenarians have started injections of human growth hormone, believing they will cease the body from aging.
As you may tell, there are numerous theories on why we age and how can we stop it, and an anti-aging pill may not be a current solution. One challenge to the tracking of an anti-aging pill could be how long humans already live; while current researches with mice or yeast cells are possible and practical, a research on a human could take, well, 75 or 80 years.
Some people really want a solution in near future. Take Ray Kurzweil: He declares that by 2045, an event called "the singularity" will happen, and humans will eventually become one with machines . Flesh and blood are not absolute materials for eternal life, so we will turn to materials that are a bit more long lasting.
As researchers find out whether we will be part machine or stimulated with on resveratrol, it's perhaps best not to leave your life's legacy just yet.
If it's available for everyone in the world, there will have to be a vetoing of reproduction to avoid excess population and the demolition of the planet. If that happens, just think the consequences of restricting ourselves the probability of having new people on Earth. The concept of not having another Einstein is a petrified one even if the intelligent people already alive would be able to improve their smartness and build on their knowledge for ages instead of just a few years.
For now, nevertheless, this is all speculation. We can only wait and see for the future development that has been done so far & dream.
