Living to 100 and Beyond: The Quest for Immortality

Until recently, ageing (and death) weren’t examined under the same scientific lens as other physiological problems. Since the beginning of time, ageing was considered inevitable and anyone challenging this norm was not taken seriously.

Gerontologists dealt with the symptoms and effects of ageing but didn’t examine the actual physiology of ageing — there was no debate around whether we could pause or even reverse ageing, it was assumed that as humans we would all age and die.

From the vantage point of human psychology, brevity, supposedly, gave life meaning. We tried to justify old age and death in the most human way possible: by rationalising it. Death was seen as force for good: as a natural mechanism for clearing out the old to make way for the new; an autumn transitioning into spring with old leaves falling away for the collective good.

But what of the costs of ageing and death? If we stop to consider, death is a massive waste of resources. When people age and die, there is an irreplaceable loss of human capital. Additionally, majority of all healthcare costs are spent to care for the elderly or for age induced or aggravated diseases (cardiovascular, most forms of cancer). The human experience of life is made infinitely worse after losing someone you love. There is nothing good about dying!

And now it appears that a brigade of scientists is spearheading a revolution. Current research on ageing indicates that there is a possibility of human life (and health span) being extended to far beyond what we conceive as normal today.

However, these problems of ageing and dying are so complex that they need to be broken down and tackled in parts. There are many ways of looking at these parts, two of the most intuitive being:

(i) looking at individual stages of the problem in time to bridge the gap from where we are now to where we want to be in the future and;

(ii) looking at the sum of all symptoms to identify the whole problem.

Bridging from where we are currently, we can break the problem of ageing into three stages:

The first bridge is where we are now: to avail the benefits of a long and healthy life span, we can take excellent care of our bodies and minds using resources already easily available: sufficient, preferably customised nutrition, regular aerobic and anaerobic exercise, good sleeping habits, and a range of other topics which I will address in detail in follow-on posts. The point of successfully crossing the first bridge is to live a healthy life long enough to reach the second bridge.

The second bridge, under construction currently, is the biotechnology revolution. Researchers around the world have identified key causes underlying ageing and are experimenting with multiple technologies to come up with a cohesive, targeted solution to reverse ageing. And we are starting to see the tangible impact of this research already: for instance, doctors have been able to use stem cells in the treatment of Parkinson’s disease. As stem cells have the potential to develop into different kind of cells, they can be regenerated into dopamine-producing cells (as in the case of Parkinson’s) or most other kinds of worn-out cells. Xenotransplantation is another promising field: imagine an 80 year old with acute kidney failure being granted a new lease of life by a kidney harvested in a genetically modified pig!

The final bridge will be built using nanotechnology and artificial intelligence and hopes to unlock immortality. Envision a future where we have nanobots circulating in our body, super warriors who go about fixing all the problems associated with ageing at its very roots. Simultaneously they would keep detailed records of our physiology, training AI models to predict future problems before they occur and devising potential solutions before the problem even has a chance to occur. Customised solutions delivered by your personal doctors!

Over the coming few months, I will be publishing a series of posts covering the problem of ageing in greater detail which will cover:

• 5 “Bridge 1” hacks to extend your life beyond 85
• 5 breakthrough “Bridge 2" research areas aiming to extend life-span in your lifetime
• 5 game-changing companies and their market-ready solutions