5 ms·

I'm annoyed to have been born early enough for biological life extension to not be available, but late enough to actually consider it a possibility.

orang2tang 5y ago
What are you afraid of?
- RivieraKid 5y ago
  He said "annoyed" not "afraid".
- w0m 5y ago
  'death' answering the question you mean; if not the one you asked.
- mindcandy 5y ago
  When the day comes that it becomes really real and everyone from now on gets to live for a few hundred years. But, not you. You are already too old for it to work. Maybe if you led a much more healthy lifestyle. But, no. You get to grow progressively more decrepit while watching people younger than you not go through the same problems. Eventually you will die of it while they are still partying hard in their 80s and will continue to do so for two hundred more years. Good for them. Sucks to be you.
  - spywaregorilla 5y ago
    > Eventually you will die of it while they are still partying hard in their 80s and will continue to do so for two hundred more years. Good for them. Sucks to be you. yeah, but you don't have to spend centuries toiling away as a slave for the Immortal Dictator
    - after_care 5y ago
      I do wonder how an economic system would function if people worked for 50 years and then had 200+ years of retirement. Perhaps the production/consumption ratio will work out as automation/ai/robots increases labor productivity. Of course it’s wildly optimistic to hope for this outcome, and some sort of wage slave or indentured servitude arrangement is more likely for the masses.
      - spywaregorilla 5y ago
        Most people don't retire with any meaningful amount of savings. Presuming the government doesn't give you social security benefits if you're actually able bodied, you would just keep working and stay poor. The larger concern is compounding wealth inequality by the mega rich who never die and just continue to accumulate ownership of everything. And of course immortal dictators.
      - JamesBarney 5y ago
        With meaningful life extension you'd have to increase the number of years people worked. But most people would probably take the "you have to work an extra 100 years, but you get to live an extra 125" bargain.
    - shepherdjerred 5y ago
      He prefers to be called President Bezos.
credit_guy 5y ago
I still have hopes. I don't think meaningful (decades-long) life extension will become reality before my time comes due, but maybe suspended animation can. We discussed isochoric freezing (for food preservation purposes) recently on HN. The concept can be used for tissue preservation as well [1], and at some point maybe for whole body preservation. One can dream ... [1] https://www.nature.com/articles/s42003-021-02650-9 https://www.nature.com/articles/s42003-021-02650-9
grishka 5y ago
I'm still hopeful. There's quite a lot of promising research being done right now, with huge amounts of money being poured into it. Latest papers point to aging being an intentional, programmed, self-sustaining process, that is the continuation of the organism's development which just happens to become destructive around 25 years of age (in humans). The older theory that aging is due to accumulated damage and telomere attrition is mostly getting abandoned. The process of aging, as it turns out, is malleable. It's most probably controlled by some signaling molecules in the bloodstream, it's just that we don't know yet which ones. Look up "heterochronic parabiosis" for related research. Then there are Yamanaka factors, those not only erase cell identity, they also erase the age. Of course you don't want all your cells turning into stem cells, but the fact that this mechanism exists at all means that it's likely possible to isolate the pathway that resets the age of a cell but keeps the identity. Then there's the "rejuvenation event" during embryonic development shortly after conception, as shown by DNA methylation clocks. So currently we have these puzzle pieces that we don't yet know how to put together, and some are still missing. We'll get there eventually. It's not even going to be life extension, as in, "you'll still get old and eventually die of old age but slower", it's full-on rejuvenation, as in, "you'll look and feel 25 and the only thing giving away your actual age will be your ID".
jacquesm 5y ago
I'll bet you that this goes for everybody alive today. Wait, strike that ;)
reducesuffering 5y ago
Not too late to improve your chances with great amounts of exercise, nutrition, and green tea, while minimizing calories.

orang2tang 5y ago

What are you afraid of?

RivieraKid 5y ago
He said "annoyed" not "afraid".
w0m 5y ago
'death' answering the question you mean; if not the one you asked.
mindcandy 5y ago
When the day comes that it becomes really real and everyone from now on gets to live for a few hundred years. But, not you. You are already too old for it to work. Maybe if you led a much more healthy lifestyle. But, no. You get to grow progressively more decrepit while watching people younger than you not go through the same problems. Eventually you will die of it while they are still partying hard in their 80s and will continue to do so for two hundred more years. Good for them. Sucks to be you.
- spywaregorilla 5y ago
  > Eventually you will die of it while they are still partying hard in their 80s and will continue to do so for two hundred more years. Good for them. Sucks to be you. yeah, but you don't have to spend centuries toiling away as a slave for the Immortal Dictator
  - after_care 5y ago
    I do wonder how an economic system would function if people worked for 50 years and then had 200+ years of retirement. Perhaps the production/consumption ratio will work out as automation/ai/robots increases labor productivity. Of course it’s wildly optimistic to hope for this outcome, and some sort of wage slave or indentured servitude arrangement is more likely for the masses.
    - spywaregorilla 5y ago
      Most people don't retire with any meaningful amount of savings. Presuming the government doesn't give you social security benefits if you're actually able bodied, you would just keep working and stay poor. The larger concern is compounding wealth inequality by the mega rich who never die and just continue to accumulate ownership of everything. And of course immortal dictators.
    - JamesBarney 5y ago
      With meaningful life extension you'd have to increase the number of years people worked. But most people would probably take the "you have to work an extra 100 years, but you get to live an extra 125" bargain.
  - shepherdjerred 5y ago
    He prefers to be called President Bezos.

credit_guy 5y ago

I still have hopes. I don't think meaningful (decades-long) life extension will become reality before my time comes due, but maybe suspended animation can. We discussed isochoric freezing (for food preservation purposes) recently on HN. The concept can be used for tissue preservation as well [1], and at some point maybe for whole body preservation. One can dream ... [1] https://www.nature.com/articles/s42003-021-02650-9 https://www.nature.com/articles/s42003-021-02650-9

grishka 5y ago

I'm still hopeful. There's quite a lot of promising research being done right now, with huge amounts of money being poured into it. Latest papers point to aging being an intentional, programmed, self-sustaining process, that is the continuation of the organism's development which just happens to become destructive around 25 years of age (in humans). The older theory that aging is due to accumulated damage and telomere attrition is mostly getting abandoned. The process of aging, as it turns out, is malleable. It's most probably controlled by some signaling molecules in the bloodstream, it's just that we don't know yet which ones. Look up "heterochronic parabiosis" for related research. Then there are Yamanaka factors, those not only erase cell identity, they also erase the age. Of course you don't want all your cells turning into stem cells, but the fact that this mechanism exists at all means that it's likely possible to isolate the pathway that resets the age of a cell but keeps the identity. Then there's the "rejuvenation event" during embryonic development shortly after conception, as shown by DNA methylation clocks. So currently we have these puzzle pieces that we don't yet know how to put together, and some are still missing. We'll get there eventually. It's not even going to be life extension, as in, "you'll still get old and eventually die of old age but slower", it's full-on rejuvenation, as in, "you'll look and feel 25 and the only thing giving away your actual age will be your ID".

jacquesm 5y ago

I'll bet you that this goes for everybody alive today. Wait, strike that ;)

reducesuffering 5y ago

Not too late to improve your chances with great amounts of exercise, nutrition, and green tea, while minimizing calories.