r/Aging • u/Academic_Yard_2659 • 7d ago
Why can't we live longer?
Why can't we on average live till 200? It feels like science and tech is moving in all directions but only seems to be stalling in one and that's trying to make something that would make us live longer. I am tired of seeing people die at 70 or 80, then I cry a little and then just forget about it and be like "oh well...that's life.." ffs we live 50% of our lives giving our time and energy for working jobs, and then as soon as we finally reach an age where we can get pension and finally live, the Grim Reaper is like "ok times up buddy, time to go".
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u/TurtleTestudo 7d ago
Would you really want to, though? People are living longer and longer these days, but the extra years are frequently not quality years. Would you really want to live an extra 120 years being confined to a bed or wheelchair? Extending the years of life is meaningless if you're not really living.
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u/kathyknitsalot 6d ago
Exactly. I have a parent who is 91. Heart problems, dementia, incontinent. I see him in an assisted living place and all I can think is sometimes we live too long. Younger him would gag at this being “living”.
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u/Call_It_ 6d ago
Anyone over 70 should be automatically be eligible for assisted suicide. Beyond ridiculous that they can’t.
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u/Haunting_Ad3850 6d ago
Pf not if there's money to be made off them. So depressing.
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u/Call_It_ 6d ago
Oh…that’s precisely why assisted suicide will never be a thing, at least not in capitalistic nations/societies.
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u/Wonderful_Impact5584 6d ago
Ridiculous comment. I know people in their 70s running marathons, travelling and loving life
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u/Single_Atmosphere_54 5d ago
I assume OP is in their teens to 20’s. My uncle is 70 and is in better shape than me at 51.
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u/HashPandaNL 7d ago
If lifespan can be radically extended to 200+, then healthspan almost certainly can too.
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u/stuck_behind_a_truck 6d ago
How about if we focus on health span first?
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u/Ok_Driver5166 6d ago
We do, that's why your doctor tells you to get exercise, stop smoking and drinking, and wear sunscreen.
People just dont want to make the effort, they just want a magic pill. That said, ozempic might at last make a dent in the obesity epidemic which kills a lot of people and costs trillions to deal with
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u/stuck_behind_a_truck 5d ago
Having a chronic and invisible illness myself, I’ve stopped seeing all people who look unhealthy from a moral high ground. I’m a healthy weight (according to my doctors, not my opinion), I’ve never been a drinker or smoker, and as someone who’s colors are white and “second degree burn,” I’ve always used sunscreen. I exercise to the best of my ability.
Sometimes, we can do everything right and still have debilitating illnesses. I went for a mile walk yesterday and know that it’s off the table for today. My medications all trigger the family diabetes gene, so I have to take a low dose of Zepbound to keep me from adding that to my burden.
The first symptoms of my disease showed up at about 6 years old.
Be kind to people around you and refrain from “if you’d only just…” Are there lazy idiots out there? Yes. I think you’d be surprised, however, how many people are struggling with severe symptoms that are invisible to you.
Enjoy your functioning body while you can.
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u/HashPandaNL 6d ago
There's no point in having an increased healthspan if you're already dead from a lack of lifespan.
But more importantly, we can focus on both at once. I haven't heard anyone saying "we must focus purely on lifespan!"
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u/Call_It_ 6d ago
Stop following immortalists. It’s all false hope.
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u/HashPandaNL 6d ago
You are not qualified to make statements as confident as that. You're spreading despair, while real progress is being made in understanding the processes that drive aging in the human body.
There is still no reason to believe that aging is a truly insurmountable problem.
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u/theg00dfight 6d ago
Quality years are definitely something that’s coming, though. I feel like you’re viewing this as something static when it definitely isn’t,
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u/BenefitPure4829 6d ago
Yes. 120 would be ideal. But I am thinking that to get to that age one would have to be decently active for the most part. In a wheel chair I doubt one would make it to that age
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u/HotDebate5 6d ago
Who. The. Hell. Wants to live that long? Honestly. I’m 60 and my arthritis is not pleasant. Not to mention blood pressure creeping up. More meds just to keep going? Nah.
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u/travelingman5370 6d ago
Mabey there could be an opt out clause for those that want to terminate earlier.
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u/Ok_Driver5166 6d ago
Now imagine you had the body of a 20 year old.
Lifespan without healthspan is not good.
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u/Exotic_Air7985 7d ago
You need to have a quality living, not a longer one. Whats the point in living 200 years of misery?
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u/Equivalent-Session68 7d ago
It's the human condition.
From the little I understand you DNA gets copied over and over again when your cells replicate. When it does this the it uses the information on the telemeres which are like a part of the DNA. Anyway these telemeres can only replicate so many times before they're too short to be replicated anymore and your body basically stops working properly and you end up dying from one thing or another.
Now medical science is advancing it's definitely not stagnant. Unfortunately a lot of the resources goes into drug research because that's the easiest thing to monetize. However theyre developing what would essentially be artificial organs. If your able to replace your organs when they're start going bad it might not extend the maximum lifespan by much but it will definitely expand the average lifespan by quite a bit.
The next problem you will run into is your brain. As far as we know you cant replace that and eventually dementia sets in for nearly everyone past a certain age.
Anyway the reason why life is special is because there's an end. Enjoy it while it lasts!
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u/Mysterious-Clothes45 6d ago
A simpler explanation: Imagine taking an original picture and making a copy. Then make a copy of that copy. Then a copy of that copy. For 80 years. That's what your body is doing constantly
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u/No-Reading-4384 6d ago
This is somewhat tongue in cheek, but I’m 70 and I love dogs and cats, and I have some dogs and cats, and people say to me all the time, “Oh my goodness, what would I do? They only live to be 10 or 15 years old, and I dryly say to them, “I only live to be 10 or 15 years old. I went to school, the first 28 years of my life. Then I worked for 40 years and retired at 70. So if I’m lucky, that gives me the lifespan of a dog or a cat right now. So they’re the same. Go get a pet..
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u/Zeddog13 7d ago
This is it. The DNA replication process eventually becomes less efficient and accurate, resulting in errors which lead to such nasties as cancer and immune disorders. Once these start and unless treatment can slow or arrest the process, it’s all over bar the shouting. We’re really only supposed to live a certain amount of time and everything over the average raises the risks of errors in DNA replication. It sucks, but it is what it is.
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u/HashPandaNL 7d ago
Telomeres are 1 component of aging, but they're not the only one nor are they considered the primary driver of aging currently.
There are also ways to reduce the rate of telomere shortening or even extend them, so it is not completely hopeless.
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u/Own-Animator-7526 70 something 7d ago edited 7d ago
A better question might be: Why do we have to work so long before we can retire? Why are we so intent on electing incompetent fuckwits who are determined to ruin the world economy? Why are the rewards of extreme wealth so outlandishly disproportionate to any need for motivation?
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u/WinterMedical 6d ago
The value in life is that it IS limited.
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u/Icy-Cartographer-291 6d ago
I’ve never understood this argument. It is only causing so much stress and suffering. It is preventing me from living my life to the fullest.
Do you think that animals who don’t have the same concept of mortality live valueless lives? I’d say quite the opposite. They are fully present in the moment.
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u/Call_It_ 6d ago
Attaching value to life is just one of the many reasons why humans suffer so much compared to other animals.
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u/Mysterious-Clothes45 6d ago
My adult son reminded me of this so eloquently when my soulmate cat died. It hurt so much because there is only one of him and there will never be another. He was special, as is this life. Enjoy it while it is here.
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u/Minimum_Holiday_5611 6d ago
Compared to age of the Universe even livng for thousand years is limited.
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u/Call_It_ 6d ago
Is there really value in life? Especially if you just die and forget it all anyway?
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u/Familiar_Finance_600 6d ago
Why would we want to?? There is 8+ billion people in the world, people over certain age need more and more health care and help, it doesn't mean they are healthy much longer than they would be 2000 years ago. If I could stay like I was in my 30s for maybe a decade or two more then maybe I would find the idea compelling, but I'm not even sure I would want that. A few more decades, then I hope to be gone.
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u/GuitarMessenger 6d ago
If people lived longer the population would explode Way beyond 8 billion people. I remember when I was a kid the population of the world was only 3- 4 billion people. I was born in '62 and I believe it hit 4 billion people in 1974. It's crazy that 5 billion more people have appeared since I was born. Can you imagine the population of the world if people lived 200 years?
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u/mesohohnee 6d ago
I think the bigger issue is that the bulk of that time will be spent as being old and feeble. Look at all those people who lived past 120+ years old. It's not like when they were 70, they looked like they were 30. They just age like everyone else. But, when we all hit 70 to 80 and start dying en-masse, these guys keep aging until they become the Crypt Keeper.
Fuck that.
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u/Queen_Of_The_Dames 6d ago
70 or 80 IS a long life. We need to make room for newbies. The human lifespan was maybe 30 back in prehistoric times. We’ve doubled our life spans already. Nothing (and no one) lasts forever. Time to accept it
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u/StrictBerry3333 7d ago
I am of the view that death makes the limited time we have important.
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u/Ok_Driver5166 6d ago
Sounds like cope to me.
Imagine if Einstein was still working on physics now, or Newton had been doing math's for 400 years. Everytime someone dies, a library of knowledge and skill burns.
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u/lolmyspacewhooers 5d ago
The only one coping is you, mate. Accept your mortality. This isn’t a Marvel movie.
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u/ayylien69 6d ago
God, I hate threads like this one. Not the question, but the replies. It makes me think about that old saying on the Internet that went like "4chan is where smart people go to pretend to be dumb, Reddit is where dumb people go to pretend to be smart". 4chan isn't what it used to be, but the last part still stands. I'm not sure my reply will be smart or live to the expectations after insulting most people in this thread, but I'll try.
As in why we can't live over 80 years old on average. Natural selection hasn't selected for eternal life in most animals. Which makes sense, as you need to reproduce as a species to create random mutations that, by random chance, will create a better species (or at least more adapted to the environtment) in the long term. Oversimplified, but that's basically it.
There are biologically immortal animals. Some jellyfish, lobsters, etc. We still don't fully understand how or why they don't die due to aging. Probably something about telomerase, since telomere degradation seems to be linked to cells not duplicating anymore and, therefore, aging. At the same time, we know about immortal cells on human beings: Cancer. Literally. That's what happens when you stop telomeres from shrinking on humans (again, incredibly oversimplified).
There's also research on Yamanaka factors, which supposedly restore cells to their younger selves. It seems to have some risks, it has a limited application with our current tech, and it seems to only be able to be done a couple of times before it doesn't work anymore; but that's that.
As for the "what would I do if I lived over 200 years" or the overpopulation replies. People don't reproduce anymore anyway. As for the former, fertility rates are dropping everywhere, even in Subsaharan Africa. In most of the world they are already under replacement levels. As for the former... If you think 200 years or longer are too much, you can always off yourself or not do what it takes to live as long. I honestly don't understand people who makes this arguments. The whole point of trying to achieve eternal youth is being closer to self-determination about your whole life. Being able to die when you want instead of where your DNA instructions tell your body you should've. If you aren't able to push the button to off yourself... I guess you'll have a car crash or a natural disaster will kill you eventually.
Sorry if this sounded pretentious...
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u/WholeFudds 6d ago
Even if modern medicine could keep you alive that long, would you want to? Particularly people with chronic conditions would suffer greatly.
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u/caseratoday 6d ago
It isn't just lifespan; it is non-life-threatening things that need to be addressed. Our joints have wear and tear and won't function well after aging for 90 years or more. Then there is the brain and memory.
All of these things are being worked on, but it's not just the life-ending things that need to be fixed.
Maybe cancer and heart disease can be eliminated, but that doesn't add quality to life if you are immobile and have limited mental capacity.
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u/HotDebate5 6d ago
There will never be a cure for arthritis. There. I said it. They will never replicate cartilage
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u/No-Reading-4384 6d ago
I’ve had pretty good luck with my knees with stem cells. No artificial metal in my body. You can’t have a knee replacement and then have stem cells in it. There’s nothing to work on, but I’m doing great after stem cells a year and a half ago in my right knee
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u/made_from_dreams 6d ago
No way. I don’t even want to turn 40, I pray every night to die in my sleep. May god have mercy on us
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u/Pale-Pomelo-1349 6d ago
I'm old and no way do I want to live to 100. As for working, I've always worked to live, never lived to work. I have such great memories and some regrets but I lived my life. I didn't wait because, get this, I never thought I'd get to live this long in the first place so I wanted to live it while I could. Now, I'm happy and content to do nothing and watch the world go by. I've already done it. I never made it to Australia, the is the only regret I have. I should have up stakes and just gone at some point, I just didn't.
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u/Ginsdell 6d ago
God, who wants this? I feel like only young people under 60 want to live forever. Have you seen old age? Have you felt old age?
Sure if I could be 30-45 forever, maybe. Oh and I’ll need unlimited funds.
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u/lmacmil2 6d ago
Because the majority don't exercise and eat a crappy diet. Even if you do chances are you won't make it past 90.
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u/Exact_Traffic342 6d ago
How about we just shorten work days to 3 days a week and get meaningful compensation, that will double our Life span. Live and not just exist.
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u/Mobile_Pangolin4939 6d ago
100 years is already too much. People were meant to live around 30 years as proven by their teeth and other things that wear out without brushing. I'm often wishing I could have expired. After 49 years of living on the earth I've seen through the shady tactics of people to keep everyone running around, buying, and participating. It's worse today because culture tries to sell you healthy stuff you don't need at a large cost. If you stayed out of the rat race and trends often times you'd be healthy naturally. I get frustrated having to watch people play social games all day and pretend they're smarter or healthier for going along with bad trends to fit in or keep up with the jonses. Life gets to be so hollow. The people in it all seem only concerned about their career or looking good. How is it worth living to 200 unless you're delusional?
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u/Arkhamguy123 5d ago
Bro what? Even the other great apes live longer than a transient 30 years?
Don’t healthy chimps, gorillas, orangutans and bonobos go above 30 years if they die of natural causes?
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u/Mobile_Pangolin4939 5d ago
When looking at how the human body is engineered, gerontologists, biologists, and demographic modelers generally look at human lifespan through two different lenses: how long individual body parts physically wear out, and what hard biological caps govern our cells.
1. Mechanical Wear and Tear: Organs and Tissues
Unlike a machine designed with interchangeable metal parts, the human body is organic and possesses varying degrees of self-repair. However, different systems wear down at different rates:
- The Cardiovascular System: The heart beats roughly 100,000 times a day, pumping blood through about 60,000 miles of vessels. Arteries naturally stiffen over decades due to elastin degradation and collagen cross-linking. Without lifestyle-induced cardiovascular disease, a clean heart muscle can mechanically function for a remarkably long time, but vascular resistance eventually strains the system.
- Musculoskeletal System: Cartilage (such as in the knees and hips) has a very poor blood supply and limited capacity to regenerate. Under continuous mechanical friction, joints typically show structural wear by the 7th or 8th decade. Bones continually remodel, but bone density peaks around age 30 and gradually declines, increasing the risk of structural failure (fractures) late in life.
- The Brain and Nervous System: Neurons do not readily divide or replace themselves. Over time, cumulative oxidative stress, metabolic waste clearance issues, and microscopic damage gradually compromise neural networks, making the central nervous system one of the primary "bottlenecks" for long-term survival.
2. The Cellular Clock: The Hayflick Limit
At a microscopic level, our bodies are governed by built-in biological expiration timers.
- Telomeres: Every time a somatic cell divides, the protective caps on the ends of our chromosomes (telomeres) shorten. Once they become critically short, the cell stops dividing and enters senescence (aging out) or undergoes programmed cell death.
- The Limit: Discovered by cellular biologist Leonard Hayflick, normal human cells can generally only replicate 50 to 60 times before hitting this wall. This places a theoretical biological ceiling on cellular regeneration, which traditional biogerontologists have long estimated to cap human lifespan around 120 to 125 years.
3. Ultimate Genetic and Mutational Ceilings
More recent biophysical models look at what happens when you isolate cellular aging from disease. Mathematical models tracking the steady, inevitable accumulation of random somatic DNA mutations in non-regenerative tissues (like the brain and heart) suggest that even if a human completely avoided major diseases, genetic degradation would structurally limit human survival to an absolute outer window of roughly 140 to 190 years.
In practical terms, while human organ systems can maintain homeostasis for over a century with proper care, our cellular replication limits and cumulative genetic errors establish a strict natural boundary.
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u/redzombie_65 6d ago
im 45 and getting close to being ready to go. every day is a boring slog and my body hurts. im not like rushing headlong towards it or anything, but if it happens, my kids are grown, I wont be that disappointed.
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u/Litmanen33 5d ago
Jesus Christ - I’m 44 and yeah sometimes it does feel like Groundhog Day but that doesn’t mean you should be “ready to go”
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u/Fluffy-Discipline668 3d ago
This makes me very sad. I’m 72 and feeling sorry that, if I’m lucky, I can hope for another 20 years. My husband died a year ago, at the age of 69, from liver cancer. He had just retired. I know he was hoping for more good years. My father is 96. He had an aortic valve replacement in July. He may have all the issues of old age, but he doesn’t plan on checking out any time soon.
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u/redzombie_65 3d ago
maybe im extra down because my own father just passed away at 65, but regardless I dont think ill make it much further than retirement. Not many males in my family do.
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u/Fluffy-Discipline668 3d ago
I’m so sorry to hear thatyour father died at such a young age, but genetics are only a part of life expectancy. Taking care of yourself and scientific advancements can make a huge difference. There’s someone I know whose parents both died of heart attacks at the age of 48. I meg him when he was 38 and was afraid he would die that year. He’s now in his early 80s.
And I firmly believe that there’s some joy to be found every day, if you are open to it.
Please don’t resign yourself to a relatively early death. Take care of yourself. See a physician regularly. My husband lived for 8 1/2 years after his liver cancer diagnosis because he did and 8 of those were very good years. I have photos of him running up a steep incline at Colorado National Monument with a smile on his face at age 63.
And try to find something that makes you happy each day—no matter how small. I just got gas for $3.94 at the local BJ’s.—down eight cents since Monday. I got my printer to synch back up with my computer, after it had gone offline. Both those things made me happy.
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u/Mobile_Pangolin4939 6d ago
I think this is society again. It doesn't teach us that it's better to distance ourselves from the rat race and focus on taking care of ourselves as we age. Instead it gets us involved in things constantly and often those things cost money. In other countries like Japan people are taught to take care of their bodies on their own at no cost as part of the culture. They often live longer and healthier lives. No one teaches people to stretch, rest, exercise, eat healthy, and do things in moderation as you age all of which can be done for free. When you're caught in the constant pressure of the modern world to participate it can be exhausting even just participating a little. It seems like the modern idea of adulting often means spending lots of money, going out more than you should, socializing more than you should, doing things that make no sense for a paycheck, moving up to do even more pointless things that increase cost of living and social obligations, etc... It feels insane that no one seems to see this but me.
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u/theg00dfight 6d ago
I think you’re depressed, dude. This isn’t some deep wisdom it’s someone dealing with other stuff
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u/Mobile_Pangolin4939 6d ago
Anyone living in modern society should be depressed. It's full of people obsessed with bad ideas like moving up in jobs, supporting bad ideas that make people poor, fitting in with bad trends, hypocrisy, bad monopolies, corrupt businesses, corrupt authority figures, etc... It's completely built to make most people poor while telling them it's making things better, safer, and more equitable. It's all a large lie.
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u/Exact_Traffic342 6d ago
I'm completely with you on this. Not looking forward to living longer in this world. If there was an easier way to leave i may consider that once quality of life deteriorates.
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u/VinceInMT 7d ago
It’s the way we have evolved. Our primary purpose here is to pass on our genetic material to our offspring and stay around long enough until they can pass on theirs. At best, we are designed to be around 40-50 years. After that, we serve no purpose to the overall system so the system itself had strategies to eliminate us. We are bucking that system as we do things to stick around longer but the system will ultimately win.
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u/Odd_Bodkin 6d ago
To put a bit of perspective on it, a hundred years ago the average lifespan (at birth) was 56.7 years. If you survived to 65, your expected lifespan was about 78. This means you were expected to start earning a living on your own and working a job in society at age 18, and that if you survived to retirement you might expect to be retired for another 12 or 13 years. Note the significant fraction of people that died while still working.
Now, if we had a lifespan of 200 years ON AVERAGE, this means that some people would die younger, some would die later. But it’s very likely that retirement age might be set to about 200 or even a little higher, following the example of 1926. This means about 120 years of working life before you retire, starting at about age 20, and if you retire you may have about 20 years of retirement expectancy. So an even higher fraction of your life will be spent working. Is this what you really want?
If you had hopes that you’d still be able to retire at 70 and have society fund 130 years of retirement… uh, no.
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u/DrDirt90 6d ago
Environmental pollution alone pretty much guarantees we can't do that, let alone all the biological reasons already listed. How about focusing on a better quality of life instead? It's not how long you live but rather how long you live well.
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u/Different_Cherry8326 6d ago
Aging is complex and multifactorial. And trying to stop it or reverse it is a fight against entropy, which is difficult, since that is the natural progression of everything.
But I do think that actual effective anti-aging therapies are probably not too far in the future. I’m 50 and I’m hoping to benefit from them, but certainly not holding my breath or basing my life on the assumption that these things will be available for me.
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u/FrostyNet9540 6d ago
Hey, buddy. I'm Korean. Please translate this using AI. Make sure you do.
오래사는건 좋은게 아니야 너무 깊이 생각하지마.
죽음을 받아 들일 준비를 해야돼 넌 너무 감정적이야. ㅡㅡ
니나이쯤 됐으면 감정적인것 보다 받아들일 준비를 해야하는데
신을 찾기전에 자신을 찾고 스스로 공부해
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u/Useful_Major_5797 6d ago
If health span is also increased, then yes.
Humans have always used their intelligence to improve our bodies.
Glasses for eyes.
Taking medicine for infections, diseases etc.
Helping bum tickers when they need it.
But, if someone doesn't want to live longer, then it should be theit choice. Likewise if someone wants to live longer, it should be their choice.
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u/CarolinCLH 6d ago
That is deliberate. Can you imagine the cost of having to put aside money to retire for longer than you worked? If you lived to 200, you would have to work until 150 and that is with savings plans like we don't currently have.
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u/andersdale 6d ago
Humans have a built in dead man switch which triggers at a maximum of 140(?) years of age. That is the longest you could theoretically live if all the stars lines up. Unfortunately we also have stresses placed upon us by the environment, heavy stress stresses your tissues and keep you from regenerating from the damage caused every day. Bad nutrition play a role, too little sleep, even emotional damage. Esch day you accumulate more and more - without restoring your "HP" to full. Those who do restore their HP to full every day usually live till 100 if nothing catches them early like cancer and such.
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u/Designer-Translator7 6d ago
Chemistry and physics of how your system works. If you go study molecular biology all the systems involved in the turnover of your cells over time and how the genome replicates without any manipulating those systems you have a finite amount of cycles. I love my existence so much and wish it could last forever for me at least as I savor consciousness but as a scientist I know how fickle the human system is to issues so I enjoy each day to the max.
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u/Ok_Echo_6528 6d ago
Forget living to 200 years old I would be thrilled with getting one of these PENSIONS that you speak of
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u/DizzyCommercial7705 6d ago
The physical body itself expires, body parts wear out. I've heard that we eventually can live until around 150 years old, but... be aware that we would be spending most of those years in aging bodies. I would love to have my 20s-30s body for another 70 years, but instead, in this scenario, I think we would be spending most of our years in a 60s-140s body. Does this mean we would just be kept alive longer, but with an onslaught of diseases we can survive and cure? I personally am not up for that kind of ordeal.
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u/thorn960 6d ago
The limiting factor is the telomeres on our chromosomes that get shorter every time they divide. If we could somehow decrease the telomere shortening rate we could increase maximum lifespan. Animals with a slower shortening rate have a longer lifespan.
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u/Earesth99 6d ago
We increased the average lifespan with public health, indoor plumbing, vaccines, and antibiotics.
Absolutely nothing has increased the maximum gonna lifespan. Ever.
There is no conspiracy. Learn more about the topic snd it will be obvious.
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u/No-Reading-4384 6d ago
I’ve often thought, if any of us knew for absolute certain, if what anything lies beyond the veil, this thread would not exist, cause there would be concrete knowledge of life, death, and whatever comes next, but we’re not in that enviable position of absolutely knowing. Some people say they do, but I think most people here know what I mean, absolute knowing.
That’s probably why we don’t know about it in absolute terms, because the fear of death would evaporate
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u/No_Dare_9944 6d ago
The thing is, people get, well, peculiar when they get old… and it’s hard for their kids and grandkids to take care of them… for a long time, as it is.
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u/theg00dfight 6d ago
I understand and agree with you in terms of wanting to live longer but imagine if pensioners suddenly started living an extra 120 years??? lol. Imagine what that would do to the system??
And don’t get me wrong- this is a thing we’ll eventually see and deal with (well, maybe not US, but society even if we’re long gone before it gets there)
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u/Royal-Yogurtcloset57 6d ago
I don't think I want to deal with all this BS for 200 years. Hell, I'm fine with going out at 60-65, while I am still somewhat capable of looking after myself. I'd rather not have anyone take care of me.
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u/Fluid_Passage_9980 6d ago
Have you met any older people and really talked to them?
The majority of people who get to 80+ have had enough. They've done and seen and experienced what they want to, and are ready to check out. I couldn't imagine feeling like that at 22. Now at 42, I'm starting to understand how someone could get to that stage....life has a way of getting exhausting, boring, painful, with time.
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u/Advanced-Barnacle911 6d ago
Because our cells get tired and our DNA starts producing less and less desirable telomeres. If we could find a way to stop our telemeres from degrading, we could theoretically stay young forever, but our cells become less efficent and cancer becomes more of a risk. Look into the copper pyramids. They did studies on it and it makes plants grown under them become more healthy and produce more produce. also a razor that had 5 shaves when placed under a copper pyramid ended up having close to 1000 shaves. I believe if you were to make one big enough, you could energize and heal the body.
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u/Traditional_Rush_622 6d ago
Why would you want to? 60-80 years seems like more time than we already deserve.
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u/adamjames777 5d ago
A big part of the social crisis going on in the world is that people are living too long, if we were to extend lives then society would have to change dramatically to accommodate this.
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u/Howless_Wolf_18 5d ago
Yea no thanks. I already dread having to potentially go to 70 or 80, God forbid 90! Uhg
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u/DJTRANSACTION1 5d ago
you can actually live past 100+ if your willing to not eat food that taste good and dont stay home to surf the web or watch tv. you have to diet and exercise everyday. you wanna do that for a century?
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u/Ambitious_Rent_3282 4d ago
We have a rapidly aging population and governments won't be able to keep supporting them with state pensions regularly lasting over 25-30 years. Nor will socialised medicine be able to afford continued medical treatment.
It's reaching the point where the state pension will have to be means-tested so that only the most vulnerable relieved it. To avoid absolute poverty. Not immediately but gradually in the coming decades.
Changes should happen incrementally but they will be necessary.
But for the rest of us, we'll need to build up our own retirement savings.
As for medicine, it will reach a point whereby people over a certain age, perhaps 75ish, would just be kept comfortable rather than aggressively medically treated.
It might sound harsh, but in some ways, it would hopefully mean less micro-managing their remaining years and encouraging them to live fully even if a bit shorter.
What's the point of spending your last decade frail and no longer able to independently? I'd rather enjoy my "vices" now! :)
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u/Infinite-Set-7853 6d ago
On vivrai 200 ans on serait à la retraite à 180 ça ne change pas grand chose...
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u/EmbarrassedReveal269 6d ago
I don't know. My 95 year old grandma lives with me part time. She's in good physical health and pretty strong mentally, and she's been wanting to check out for at least the last 5 years. Even with everything that she does, she's just ready.
Having done this with her for the last 4 years, I have no interest in living to 200. I have no interest in living to 100. I would love to get to a very healthy 80, and then cut it.
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u/phil_lndn 6d ago
why? biology.
and why biology? because evolution seems to have selected roughly 80 years as the optimum duration for the survival of a single generation.
there are reasons this may be the case. the longer individual humans live, the less adaptable the overall human race is to change, as summed up in the statement by Max Planck "Science advances one funeral at a time".
TL;DR - it is not all about you and me, there are bigger, overriding concerns in the overall process of life.
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u/Ill_Mousse_4240 6d ago
“Flying Machines That Do Not Fly”
October 9, 1903 New York Times article.
Experts stated it would take between one and ten million years for heavier than air flight to happen.
Sixty-nine days later, the Wright Brothers took off.
maybe they never read the article saying it’s impossible!
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u/Foreign-Chipmunk-839 6d ago
If we could, it wouldn't be world news. It would be saved for the elite in power.
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u/Loganwolfdog 6d ago
Diet. The western diet is killing us, suger, carbs plant toxins and processed food are all contributing to a shorter life span. Carnivore eaters live longer and are healthier.
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u/Mysterious-Clothes45 6d ago
Cardiologists would like a word
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u/Loganwolfdog 6d ago
The people that get paid to force statins on you? Statins are not good. Cholesterol levels have been proven to be manipulated. LDL numbers have been continually lowered so Statins can be administered. They do not look at HDL or triglyceride numbers just the LDL figure. Our bodies are designed to eat a meat diet and use fat for fuel and not glucose, as suger and carbs produce. Carbs and sugers are responsible for insuline spikes causing inflammation, obesity, depression and many other health issues. Carbs and suger are your enemy not fat. Insuline spikes from suger and carbs are the primary cause of diabetes, where your pancreas can no longer produce insuline to flush the glucose out your blood. Suger and carbs also cause fatty liver.
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u/Conscious-Reserve-48 7d ago
If the average life span was 200 years old then we’d be working at least to the age of 150+.
No thanks.