Who doesn’t dream of living forever? A beginning of hope is launched by a researcher from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), a specialist in defined longevity and an engineer. For José Luis Cordeiro, the revolution is underway, and we can repair the damage caused by the aging process of the body.
He worked with his co-author David Wood, a mathematician and transhumanist from the University of Cambridge. He said that “research is progressing in finding ways to systematically replace, repair or reprogram damage [to the human body, editor’s note]”.
The goal is to figure out how to live long enough to benefit from the expected effective rejuvenation therapies. Longevity therapies could become part of general social security in the future. Because health care could be reversed: instead of investing 80% of medical expenditure in the last two decades of life, citizens would be led to invest in effective longevity therapies from the first decades of life.
Society would thus benefit, old age and its consequences being under control. This would create a sort of “longevity dividend” relieving mankind of foresight. But what are the long-term consequences if the world’s population were to grow?
The two researchers do not see a problem with global overpopulation, ecological and economic solutions can easily be found according to them, especially for food.
For example, meat production would then become more ethical and environmental, with the production of cultured meat material that does not come from sentient animals. The same concerns for agriculture: modern cultivation methods will promise more yield and greater respect for the environment and resources.
If the promise of eternal life comes true, humans will have to adapt to canonical ages, José Luis Cordeiro opens the debate: “Will humanity be ready when we double the life expectancy again? life of 80 to 160 years? We are adapting, we have adapted, we will adapt.”
And to underline with blissful optimism: “According to futurists like Ray Kurzweil, director of engineering at Google and co-founder of Singularity University, death in 2045 will be optional”.
But what methods to get there? David Wood has his answer: “Biological aging is a series of damages at the cellular and molecular level in the body. Research is making strides to find ways to systematically replace, repair, or reprogram this damage.”
