Longevity

[Harpo]

Another supercentenarian died the other day. There are now only 19 living people in the world who were born before the year 1900. Only one of them is male - he's the last 19th Century Man On Earth.

I wonder if at the end of this century, scientific progress will mean some people born in the late 20th century will live into the 23rd century, or even the 24th. Or, as some say, perhaps the first person to live for a thousand years has already been born?

What do you think?

 

[Gordian Knot]

I believe it is conceivable the technology is here now to extend quality of life far beyond the biological norm. If not quite yet, certainly by the time our youngest generation are adults it will most certainly be available for them.

The BIG question is who will have access to such technology. The world is already groaning under the weight of too many people, dwindling resources. The last thing we need is for lots and lots of people to start living extended lives on top of all that.

I expect the technology will be made prohibitively expensive so that the only ones who can afford it are the elite of society. Elite being defined by personal wealth, which is the 21st century version of royalty.

 

[Snowdog]

Personally I don't think it will be technology (except as a research tool) so much as a true understanding of how cells work, which we're moving towards. Yes, I think it's coming and it won't be expensive, any more than today's cell-manipulation techniques are. But longevity plus uncontrolled population growth equals disaster, so it will be tightly controlled, perhaps even suppressed except for the few.

 

[Harpo]

I think there'll be some disasters & problems, but eventually science will find a way to solve all the problems that come with increased longevity & population, maybe by the end of the century we'll all fit on Zanzibar (at the required rate of 17 people per square metre, the Isle Of Wight has been too small for at least fifty years.)

 

[Perpetual Man]

The answer to the question of what we are going to do with everyone is rather simple:

Engage!

 

[Harpo]

Although space travel is a fine idea, it isn't and never will be a solution to overpopulation.

Consider how long it might take to build, let's say, a thousand interstellar craft which can each carry ten thousand people. Let's be optimistic and guess it can be done in twenty years - now then, that's twenty years to get a total of ten million people into space.
Terrific effort! Well done for achieving such a fine thing.
But of course, during that twenty years, the human population has increased by a billion or two.
So it's not a solution to overpopulation at all.

 

[rune]

Im not so sure, they keep going on about how unhealthy we are in general and folks are going to die before their parents....

 

[Huttman]

Listening to the radio this morning I heard this is the first generation to have an average life expectancy LESS than that of the previous one. It is the first time it has supposedly gone the other direction. I believe it has something to do with obesity.

 

[Harpo]

On average, life expectancy at birth increases by quarter of a year each year - which means every 40 years it increases by a decade. But what if we could increase that growth from a quarter of a year each year to a whole year each year? Then we would begin to live a very long life. And if it increased by more than a year? Who knows...