It seems in recent history, humans lifespans are increasing at dramatic rates. If we look back only 50 years, the average life expectancy of a person living in America was 65 years. Look back 100 years and the average life expectancy of a person living in America was 45 years. These figures are mind boggling when you consider that the life expectancy in America today is 77.6 years. So, why the drastic changes and how far can this trend continue?
First, the question must be addressed of, why are we living longer? According to the Royal Geographical society, we are living longer because of improvements in public health, nutrition and medicine. In addition, vaccinations, improved working conditions, a decline in smoking, and lower fertility rates have lead to many countries average life span skyrocketing. Moreover, our life expectancy is expected to continue to rise into the mid 80’s in many well developed countries. But, will this trend continue?
The answer to this question is extremely complicated and convoluted for multiple reasons. The first reason being that it is extremely difficult to predict what new inventions or innovations in the health community will be formed in the years to come. For instance, famous author and scientist Ray Kurzweil believes an event will occur by 2045 called the singularity which means humans and machines will become one. Another reason why answering the question of if life expectancies will continue to rise is that we do know exactly how much they have rose in the past. Many scientists question if we are actually living longer today. Their argument is that in the past, infant mortality and other non-ageing related deaths were much more prevalent which skewed the data. For example, John Adam’s lived to age 90, Thomas Jefferson lived to 84, and Ben Franklin lived to 83; and they were born about 300 years ago.
Elaborating on this, there are many ideas out in the open today that could be the answer to aging. Some of these ideas being a calorie restricted diet, anti aging pills, and HGH. However, even though some of these concepts have been proven to work on other animals such as mice, it is going to be difficult to see their effects on people. The first reason being that if a test group uses these possible anti-aging methods, it may take 75-80 years to see their effects. Another reason why it will be difficult to see if these methods are viable it that people have different genes that will cause them to live longer or shorter lives so comparing two different subjects in a test using anti aging methods will be nearly impossible to do.
In conclusion, there is no definite answer to my original question of if we can live forever. It will all depend on technological advancements over the next many centuries. But, these advancements are nearly impossible to predict. Having said this, based on my research, unless we discover a way to synthesize substitutes for our human bodies, it is not possible to live forever because our bodies simply take too much wear and tear over a lifetime. But, let the future prove me right or wrong.
Work Cited:
http://theconversation.com/why-we-cant-live-forever-understanding-the-mechanisms-of-ageing-7353
http://science.howstuffworks.com/life/genetic/humans-live-forever.htm
It has always been a question that if people can live eternally. People can live a life that is longer than normal but there is no one who can live forever. Hopefully, scientists in the future can answer this question and figure out the technology which can make humans live forever.
Your blog’s topic really fascinates me, and actually I view humans’ longevity as one of the most important subject we focus on in science. As regards the two problems of conducting a test on anti- aging pills you mentioned, in fact I think they are possible to be solved. For the first one: it may take 75-80 years to see the effects, we can build an observational team to track the effects of pills. If someone cannot finish tracking in his lifetime, some else can take up from where he left. As for the second problem of genes, as long as we can locate the genes that impact people’s length of life, we can choose people who have similar genes to do the experiment. Can we locate these magical genes? I found a report of ABC News says that “In a report published in Tuesday’s Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, scientists at Harvard University and Boston’s Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center announce they have found the location of a gene, or genes, responsible for a long life.” (source) Thus it is possible for us to run the test of anti- aging pills, but we should be careful that there are no side effects that may do harm to people’s health.
Yes, advances in medicine have given us the ability to live longer than those before us. However, is it really worth it? I know personally I would not want to be a 90 year old who is still very much alive but cannot do anything but sit and take the medicine that is keeping them there. For me this just doesn’t seem like actually life. By definition it is but by practice it really isn’t life