Life Span by Shale September 22, 2014 I have worked with intellectually disabled ppl since March 1975 when hired by Montanari Clinical Schools in Hialeah Florida. There, I learned that ppl with Down syndrome did not live much past 30 years. The reason was the usual - congenital heart defects and respiratory problems. This was a given for many years but by 1981, in a respite care job where I worked with infants with Down syndrome I was beginning to see the chest scars of early heart surgery. Life expectancy was increasing by staying ahead of all those formerly fatal defects. However, since the end of the 20th Century I have been working at one place, long enuf to have outlived three of my contemporaries with Down syndrome. The first was Elliott, whom I knew from ADE, another facility in Miami since the early 1980s. He was a vital man back then and had a girlfriend with Down syndrome. But Elliott, born in 1945 was so much older than me by the time he died in 2006 at age 60. It was the same for Howard, born in 1947 and died an old man at 61 in 2009. But I felt most connected to Martin when I discovered in his records that two weeks after I was born in the Bay Area of California in November 1944, Martin was born in Brooklyn New York. We were contemporaries and but for the grace of one wayward chromosome, there went I. Martin had Down syndrome and was deteriorating mentally with Alzheimer's. Whereas I was a still active, aging grandfather, Martin was an elderly man with dementia who had lived far beyond his life expectancy at the time when he was born. Martin died in 2007 at the age of 62. Apparently, at the present, ppl with Down syndrome have a lifespan of 6 decades. I have become aware, going into my 7th decade of life that demografically, I am approaching my life expectancy of 76 years - but that is not a lifespan. There is an outside chance that I have 5 more decades to go before reaching the ultimate known lifespan of humans. (Jeanne Louise Calment; February 21, 1875 to August 4, 1997, had the longest confirmed human lifespan on record, living to the age of 122 years, 164 days.) I suspect that ppl with Down syndrome have a shorted lifespan due to some genetic factor. Scientists are working now on finding the cause of ageing and it has to do with some built in genetic mechanism that gives us a finite number of times cells can divide, due to telomeres on the ends of our chromosomes shortening until they can no longer divide. Just an assumption, but since Down syndrome is caused by a defect in chromosomes, that may also affect their telomeres as well. So, just as ppl with Down syndrome have an increased life expectancy from 30 years to the max of 60 years due to medical intervention, someday we may all live much longer when scientists learn to manipulate the mechanix of our DNA.
More Musings on Lifespans: I guess "lifespan" is relative concept. It is what we accept going into a life, based on those who went before us, and with luck of not ending too soon we can gauge how long we have to accomplish things or goof off, whatever. In the lifespan of a Mayfly, an insect of the order Ephemeropter, which is Greek for "short-lived" or "day-long," adults only last about a day - long enuf to breed and lay eggs for the next gen. On the sci-fi TV series Star Trek: Voyager (1995-2001) Kes (Jennifer Lien) is an Ocampa, a race with a lifespan of only 9 years. This was a fascinating dramatic concept. Within her own kind, 9 years was normal time to do everything ("Mayfly" was the original concept for her character). To the Ocampa in a human environment it would be like us with Guinan's race, which lived for many hundreds of years. We wouldn't consider ourselves of short duration because they lasted so long.
Google has a new division that is devoted to increasing lifespan. It is headed by a brilliant fellow named Ray Kurzweil. I think it is quite likely that there will be some breakthroughs in the next ten years or so that will give us a chance to live well way past our expectations. The problem is that we will almost certainly run out of retirement money.
Thanks for reminding me of Kes - the episode when she transformed was one of my favourites. I think it's quite possible that in the future it will be possible to expand the human life span. The thing is though, it would also mean we'd have to be able to stay younger for longer, as it wouldn't be good to be like the average 95 year old and still have decades to go. So it will have to be some way to slow down the ageing process that would have to be started when a person was quite young. Unless of course some way to regenerate the body and take it back in time a few years could be found. But that seems more sci-fi than just life extension. Since they are now beginning to understand the micro cellular processes and the mechanisms that lead to ageing better, I think there's a good chance that it will come. But it will probably be only for those with money. The 1%.
I didn't mention it in the article but the age of 65 for retirement was set in the 1930s when that was the average life expectancy. If you were one of the lucky ones to make it past 65, you could stop working and take it easy for the next few years on borrowed time. My grandfather died at 63 in 1960 when the life expectancy was 67. BTW, Roosevelt, who started Social Security died at 63 also.
I've massively interested in the whole topic. Partly because I consider ageing to be a disease rather than "natural". Nutritional genomics is something of interest to me (ie the science of using foods to protect yourself from genetic damage). I'm also into the Chinese exercise arts. Some Chinese are very good as harnessing the body's own repair mechanisms, for instance. The other thing I think is important is to protect yourself from damage - poisons, insufficient sleep, too much stress etc Some people are terrific examples of protecting yourself from free radical damage. For instance Merlin Ottey, still an Olympic level sprinter in her 50s. Then there are some bodybuilders and kung fu masters (over 100 yrs old in some cases!) I think its bizarre that people and govts spend absolute fortunes on bullshit, but spend very little on life extension, so far. I was watching a TV programme that said the reason humans became civilised is that they began to live a life past 30 yrs. That meant that skills could continue to be developed, not lost. So I think that if our most learned people could continue to share their skills for 50 or 100 years rather than the 10 or 20 yrs in current senior positions, we could see huge leaps forward. To think of all ways IT has stepped forward, its staggering to think how little we've gone in life extension, so far. I do think that is starting to change tho. We are living longer, even if most people aren't visible that much younger looking. I think with nano-tech, gene therapy and other technologies that can all change massively over the coming years. It will be interesting to see how quickly this develops.
If aging was a disease, which age should growth stop at, and why? It isn't only about appearances and beauty, I know. Health and functionality matter a whole lot. But should a 65 year old woman be expected to look and feel and function like she's 35? What age should we die at (since never is never an option)?
Yeah, I dont really get the appeal Especially if it means a decade or two more in a nursing home with dementia and you are not really all that aware. If they could "cure" ageing to the point where you look the same as when you are 25 for the following 100 years, then maybe. But even then, how long would it take everyone to get bored of everything and off themselves en masse anyway. What age would you start to go nuts anyway? 120, 150, 200?
Well, I think everyone working on this is fully aware of the quality-of-life issue. The whole point is what they call "compression of morbidity", which basically means we're healthy until very near the end.
I dont understand this. Its like the "cult of death". I can only think that people spend so long trying to accept death, that ultimately they cant face the idea of life extension. ________________ The 1st pt is that life extension isnt actually about having a rotting half corpse last decades in an old aged people's home. Its about stopping people ageing or reversing the ageing. Check out some Chinese kung fu/Tai Chi masters. They're REALLY old 80, 90 or more but can perform feats no 20,30,40 yr olds could. The 2nd pt is that society would be more successful and productive if people lived longer, healthier lives (as I touched on in my earlier post). Back in Victorian times, the politicians were outraged with the idea that sewers should be built. There were claims that "we will be overrun with the working classes" and other such shite. (I think 10 out of every 12 poor children died in infancy). But, eventually sewers were built, and Britain's population went from 18 or so to 60m in about 100 yrs. AND living standards rose gigantically, What age should we die? When we can no longer be treated by the best medical science available! You cant say "we wont study medicine, incase people live longer". That would be perverse. There were attacks on state funded medicine, on transplants and on antibiotics because some people thought "people would live too long". Did they destroy society? No, quite the opposite. And the other idea is that people would look good, and be able to perform well for their whole lives, rather than just a proportion of them. Its incredible that we struggle to protect an organ as simple as the skin in this day and age. Imagine if we COULD reverse skin ageing better than today, the benefits for society could be quite big in their own right.
I just came across this today, more info on the telomeres that I mentioned. http://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/researchers-discover-switch-old-cells Here's another thot in from a sci-fi story. Just because we are "organic" does not preclude us from being manufactured by some really advanced beings. Suppose we are like the organic androids, or Replicants in Blade Runner and not really aware that we were manufactured. Just as with those replicants who were given a four year lifespan on a genetic level, we and all other life on this planet could have been given a lifespan so that we did not live forever. Suppose these telomeres are that genetic mechanism purposely put there to prevent our immortality. With each new advance in knowledge we are discovering from where we come and our true potential to go beyond that one-century lifespan.
I like the references to Star Trek: Voyager and Star Trek TNG. From Star Trek to Babylon-5 to Stargate SG-1 ascension to a higher plane of existence was the way to cheat death Hotwater
Do you guys believe in reincarnation? I think that natural medicine and ancient wisdom, like the Chinese kung-fu masters you pointed out, Resso, that's all good. Being healthy and living a long life, I see the appeal in that. But when you start to fiddle with DNA and use technology to somehow reverse aging, that just sounds bizarre to me. I do believe in reincarnation (I haven't looked much into it, it just makes sense to me), I don't think that when my body dies, "I" suddenly disappear, I cannot comprehend that... Whatever natural life I have on this earth is the natural life I feel I was meant to live before I move on to the next. Then, of course, there is the issue of whether or not I believe in treatment for diseases and organ transplants and etc etc... A discussion for another day.
I'm a Buddhist, so yes, I do believe in reincarnation. But my next life can wait. I'm having too much fun in this one.
Well,I have no recollections of former lives-nor set expectations of the next. However,I do agree with Zione's p-o-v,that the 'you' you are is a palpable entity and as such cannot be diminished or extinquished. Now,I'm not setting myself up as a guru here...I'm just saying that the essence of 'you' will remain so,regardless of a physical presence. ....just maybe,all those 'essences' coming together as one,are what comprises the Dark Matter scientists say exists but can't be found.....
