Fountain of Optimism
Scientist: new biotechnology will allow people living today to live up to 1000 years
Dmitry Mazalev, Naked Science
Aubrey de Grey, a researcher working in the field of regenerative medicine with the support of businessman Peter Thiel, believes that some modern people will live up to a thousand years, and wonders why his confidence is perceived with distrust.
Silicon Valley is built on the idea that technology can optimize and fix almost any aspect of our lives: according to some scientists, human life expectancy will not be an exception. An increasing number of transhumanists are convinced that over time people can transform with the help of bioengineering, and aging will be curable, like any disease.
In light of the rapid progress in the field of gene editing, nanotechnology and robotics, some futurists expect that biohackers living now will already be able to double their life expectancy. Aubrey de Grey, a researcher working in the field of regenerative medicine with the support of tech magnate Peter Thiel, is confident that some of the modern people will live up to a thousand years, and is surprised why his confidence is perceived so skeptically.
Korean doctor and financier Joon Yun offered a prize of 500 thousand dollars to anyone who can restore the heartbeat of an experimental animal and increase its life expectancy by 50 percent. Yun believes that for people, the mortality rate at the age of 20 is 0.001 percent, "so if you could maintain the homeostatic ability of this age, the average life expectancy would be 1,000 years."
Harvard Medical School staff believe they are close to solving this problem. As people age, the number of blood vessels in the muscles decreases, which is believed to lead to the gradual destruction of vital organs. The same pattern is observed in mice. In 2018, Harvard researchers fed rodents a chemical to manipulate a gene associated with blood vessel growth and found that older mice could subsequently run on a treadmill for 56 percent longer. Until this study is completed, the market for so–called smart drugs is developing - amino acids and other supplements that supposedly increase cognitive abilities and prevent brain aging. The market for these drugs is expected to exceed $11 billion by 2024.
One of the most famous biohackers is the founder of Bulletproof Coffee, Dave Asprey. Last year, the doctor extracted stem cells from Espri's bone marrow and injected them into organs and joints throughout the body: Espri intends to repeat this process twice a year, believing that he "refreshes" the body with new cells. He recently turned 45, but he is confident that he will live to 180. However, not everyone in the world community thinks so optimistically.
Most scientists are either skeptical or categorically against any attempts to reverse the aging process or prolong human life indefinitely. Richard Miller, a professor at the University of Michigan, in his article calls Di Gray's life goal "so far from plausible that it does not cause any respect in the informed scientific community." The oldest people lived to be 120 years old, and this record has not been reached in recent decades, despite significant improvements in healthcare. This fact has led many experts to believe that this is largely the "biological ceiling" of human longevity.
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