Originally published at: Humans could live to be 150 according to new scientific research | Boing Boing
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Hooray for overpopulation and retiring at 125! 
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From what I understand, this has a lot to do with telomeres–what seems like junk dna at the ends of chromosomes. These get shorter when a cell is copied, giving a genetic time bomb for cell replication and thus, us. The advantage of this is that it protects us from cancer, as it is a natural mechanism to arrest runaway cell duplication. So, treatments or mutations that prevent telomere decay (leading to longer life) are likely just going to increase cancer and kill us anyway. As Gil Scott-Heron put it, “if he don’t get you in the washing, lord knows he’ll catch you in the rinse.”
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Fuck that noise, noways would I want to live that long, even given the choice.
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My GM turned 100 in December. I can’t wait to tell her this.
Every time I speak with her she reminds me that she is 100 plus how many days since since her B-Day. She rocks!
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Jeanne Calment, the oldest person on record to have ever lived, died in France at the age of 122.
Samuel Shepard: “Hold my beer.”
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Oh, sure. In a “stressor-free environment”…
I’ll put these on my watch list, just in case:
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‘What’s the longest life that could be lived by a human complex system if everything else went really well, and it’s in a stressor-free environment?’
And you had the right genes. I was just reading about some recent research that connected genetic variants that are particularly good at repairing genetic damage with longevity in humans. It’s not going to happen for all - or even most - of us without some genetic intervention of some sort, even leaving aside “stressor-free environment” bit (which right off the bat excludes anyone subject to various prejudices, poverty, etc.).
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forgot the rest of the headline:
… but only rich people will get to.
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Good. I have been planning to outlive the shit out of everybody just for the heck of it anyway.
Also, I might even get around to scratch some items of my to-do list.
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I gotta chime in that the Hayflick limit in aging has been overstated outside of the field, just because it’s an easy thing to see. It’s definitely there and rate of telomere shortening is a factor in lifespan, but deactivating telomerase, the enzyme that maintains telomere length, is something that happens later in cell differentiation from stem cells to a non-replicative state, even in adults. Your skin renews every 50 days and intestines completely self renew every week. The telomeres of these stem cells are fine… until they aren’t. Why the processes that constantly rebuild our tissues eventually shut down is more complex than just telomeres. Random mutations, senecent cells, and the inflammatory signals these things cause could be the cause of telomere shortening rather than caused by it. Maybe both cause each other. We’re still working that out.
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To be fair, there are no records to confirm Samual Shepard’s claimed birth year so the best genealogists can figure is that he was between 120 and 125 when he died. No spring chicken to be sure but unclear if he actually beat Jeanne Calment’s record.
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Get to? Enduring half a century in triple-digit territory sounds like a kind of hell to me.
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Is this a good place to ask whether anyone else has noted various tech bros, some of whom are invested in age extension ventures, having sudden changes in appearance and behaviour? Or having anomalous success in fields other than their ‘normal’ pursuits, at an age perhaps 25 years beyond what is normally associated with such ability?
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Screw living to 150. I just want to be healthy and active until 85 and then drop dead.
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In response to spiraling college costs and increases in loan amounts, capitalists are increasing human lifespans to ensure loan repayment.
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Agreed, but “genetic interventions” of various sorts are going to get a lot more routine in coming years. The same technology used to deliver the genetic information in the MNRA Covid vaccines was originally developed for gene therapy, and is now already being used to treat a number of gene-based diseases.
That said, I’m not a transhumanist who believes that ordinary aging itself is a disease, so I’m not sure how I feel about the idea of routinely altering the genes of old but otherwise healthy people just to extend everyone’s life a bit.
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So a full ten years beyond what Dr Ezekiel Emanuel is hoping for? Getting a bit greedy, aren’t you?
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All I’ve noticed is a bunch of billionaires getting divorced… 
Maybe they’re rethinking the duration of, “Until death do us part.” 
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