Pondering Immortality: The Prospect of Halting Aging

If given a choice right now, what would be your preferred lifespan? 80, 90, 120 years, or even more? And do you believe your choice will alter as you advance in age? Around 50,000 years ago, the average human lifespan was significantly shorter. However, as we learned to harness the resources available to us for our benefit, our lifespans gradually increased. Today, we live longer and healthier lives than any previous generation. Yet, this progress comes with unforeseen challenges. We're witnessing a greater portion of our lives dominated by illness and dependence on care. Most of us are likely to pass away in a hospital, a sobering thought in itself. Furthermore, we often have to endure the distress of watching our loved ones go through the same experience. But what if we could alter this narrative forever? The most efficient way to combat a disease is through prevention. Encouraging a million people to quit smoking is significantly more lifesaving than enhancing chemotherapy treatments. So, why not address the root cause of all diseases: the aging process itself?

In essence, aging is the consequence of physics, not biology. Consider the analogy of cars. Over time, friction causes parts to wear down, metal rusts, filters become clogged, and rubber cracks. Similarly, our bodies undergo wear and tear due to trillions of minute physical processes. Factors like oxygen, solar radiation, and our metabolic activities contribute to this. Though our bodies have numerous repair mechanisms, their efficiency diminishes over time. As a result, our bones and muscles lose strength, our skin develops wrinkles, our immune system weakens, our memory fades, and our senses decline. The notion of dying from old age is a misnomer. We all die because a crucial part of our body fails. As we age, the accumulated damage renders us more fragile, making us susceptible to one or more diseases that ultimately cause our demise. However, amidst this grim picture, there's a glimmer of hope. Longevity research has made remarkable strides in recent years, often unnoticed by the public. For the first time, we are beginning to understand the mechanisms that drive aging and how we can potentially manipulate them.

Aging isn't an inscrutable or inevitable process, and we may have the capacity to halt or delay it within our lifetime. But this begs the question: should we put an end to aging? Is it even a desirable proposition? The cessation of aging or life extension often triggers unease among many. The cycle of birth, youth, aging, and death has been the unchanging order of things throughout human history. Aging is generally seen as a positive phenomenon, isn't it? We often cherish the idea of living long enough to experience old age, even referring to these years as the 'golden years.' However, the reality is that while everyone aspires to grow old, no one wishes to endure the ailments of old age. Take the example of the Greek myth of Tithonus. Tithonus, the beloved of the goddess Eos, was so dear to her that she implored Zeus to bestow upon him immortality, allowing them to spend eternity together. However, she failed to ask specifically for perpetual youth. Consequently, Tithonus was granted immortality, but he continued to age without the mercy of death. After a few centuries, he shrunk to the size of a grape, babbling incoherently for eternity.

The fear of unending old age is not a modern concept; it dates back thousands of years. However, putting an end to aging does not equate to a continuous process of growing frail. If you're already considerably old, the cessation of aging wouldn't make much difference. A 90-year-old who ceases to age would still likely pass away within a few years due to the extensive damage already done to his body's internal mechanisms. There are simply too many vulnerabilities for diseases to exploit. Instead, the idea of life extension offers the promise of putting an end to diseases, thereby eliminating a defined maximum lifespan. The extent to which we could extend our lives remains uncertain. We could potentially maintain every human's health until the currently accepted maximum age of around 120, or we could even halt biological aging and disease indefinitely. As of now, we don't know what's achievable.

Even if we had the capability, should we put an end to aging? In essence, life extension is just another term for medicine. The primary objective of all medical practitioners is to extend life and reduce suffering. The bulk of healthcare resources are utilized in managing the effects of aging. Nearly half of your healthcare expenses in your lifetime will be incurred in your old age, and another third during middle age. In essence, with our current medical practices, we're already attempting to prolong life, but in a rather inefficient manner.

Halting aging is no less natural than performing a heart transplant, treating cancer with chemotherapy, or using antibiotics or vaccines. In the modern world, none of our actions are purely natural anymore, yet we enjoy the highest quality of life in history as a result of that. What we're currently doing is waiting until it's too late and the body is failing. Then, we employ the majority of our resources attempting to fix it as best as we can, while it continues to deteriorate.

However, the idea of life extension still seems overambitious to many. A lot of people have the notion that they would want to die once they reach a certain age, and this may still hold true. The prospect of entirely evading death is rather unsettling for many. Ending biological aging doesn't imply the cessation of death altogether. It's more akin to those summer evenings during childhood when you had to go inside as it got dark, but you wished for a bit more time to continue playing, to enjoy a little more of the sunset before calling it a day. It's not about wanting to play outside endlessly, but just for a bit longer, until we feel ready to stop.

Imagine a world devoid of disease where you and your loved ones could lead a healthy life for an additional 100 or 200 years. How would that alter us? Would we take better care of our planet knowing we would inhabit it for a longer period? If our working years spanned 150 years, how much time would we invest in discovering our true potential? How much more time would we dedicate to learning? Would the intense feeling of pressure and stress that many of us experience today dissipate or intensify? So, to reiterate, if you had the choice to determine your lifespan right now, in good health and alongside your friends and family, what would be your personal answer? How do you envision your future?