TEDMED 2009: Do You Want To Live Forever?

How would you like to die? This was precisely the question Aubrey de Grey, the chief science officer at the SENS Foundation, opened his TEDMED 2009 talk with. He gave us three options: cancer, diabetes or Alzheimer's. He seemed downright angry (yet tongue-in-cheek) that the elderly have lost the vigor and mental agility they had as young adults and while it's nice that they have more experience and wisdom, they don't have the strength to do much with it. "There the small cost of 200 billion dollars a year to keep the elderly going in a frail and decrepit state that for most increases their lifespan for a year or two." His SENS Foundation works on developing and promoting widespread access to regenerative medicine solutions to remedy the disabilities and diseases of aging.

What is aging? De Grey defines it as metabolism, which continually causes damage and damage eventually causes pathology. Slowing down the progression of the pathology is one way about it (geriatrics), but there's only so much we can do and ultimately people go downhill anyway, he says. His preferred approach? The maintenance approach: constantly repairing damage and keeping it down to a level that doesn't allow pathologies to emerge (hence he's had the reputation that he's on a quest to create immortality, a claim he says might be a side benefit of improving quality of life through time, but not the point). "Human bodies are just a machine," he says.

David Sinclair, co-founder of resforum.org for more information about resveratrol.

Following the conversation around aging, Eric Dishman, co-founder of the Center for Aging Services, Intel fellow, Digital Health Group, and behavioral scientist who studies aging behavior said behavioral markers matter in early diagnosis of a medical issue in the elderly. At Intel he's working on collecting actual household patterns and behavioral markers (24/7) like changes in postural sway, voice recognition response time upon answering a phone, gait and stride-length through different rooms in the house in order to predict an incident before it happens. For example, if someone is being monitored through time and their voice is softer each time they answer the phone over the course of months, it might be a sign of Parkinson's 5 to 10 years before any obvious medical condition presents itself. He stressed the important of a shift from mainframe to personal health care.

More to come later... keep checking back.

Here's to your health!

Live Blogging TEDMED 2009:

• Why Your Physicians Need To Know Where You've Lived
• The Future Of Cancer Medicine
• The Future Of Mind-Body Medicine
• Using Sleep As A Gateway Into The Brain

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Comments

[Maya68]

I apologize for bringing in religion here.... but if you're Hindu or Buddhist, you do sort of live forever .. via reincarnation of your soul! Of course, you won't be the "same"you but on the other hand what fun to experience different lives and places :)
If you prefer, check the Greek Myths. Immortality without youth is a fate worse than death, to have the two but just for a few and having to witness death of loved ones/places over eternity ... would truly be a living hell.
By far better to plan for the future but live in the moment.

[w0rld0fw0rcraft]

apology accepted, otherwise tldr

[ZellaBee]

We do live forever...just not in our bodies.

[carolinecantoo]

Well where do we go ? How do you know? Certain?

[ZellaBee]

Other than my own personal experiences with afterdeath contact by family members. I've read hundreds of personal accounts of after clinical death experiences and after death contact.
you might try checking out
www.nderf.org, ( a research site)

[arachne646]

Are you certain, caroline? And why is it so important to you that you had to post? I don't know exactly what happens to us, either--of course we can't know from here. I'm sure from my experiences of my relationship with god during my life that that relationship won't end when my body ends.

Everyone wants to live a long, healthy life--you can live for years and years with diabetes in good health if it's caught early and managed well. It's when complications set in that health is compromised,, or when the treatment becomes worse than the disease. A lot of cancers can be cured, or treated with a lot of healthy life left to live. Likewise, with cardiovascular disease: everyone has friends and family who are on medication for high blood pressure and cholesterol, or have had some kind of hospital care for a heart attack; these people would have been chronic invalids 30 years ago, if they had survived. Some 70-plus people have the finances to decide for themselves to be activists in society or run for political office or volunteer in other areas. Some want to travel. Some want to , or have to, care for their children or seek employment part-or full-time. If seniors really didn't have the strength to use their capacities, we would be short a lot of work-hours.

Incidentally I live in Vancouver, Canada. Cost is not a factor in accessing medical or hospital care.

[JCZOCH]

Radical Life Extension The Race Is ON !!!
Molecular biology is now expanding at an explosive pace. What would happen if we were to push the rate of progress just that little bit more?

There is now an alliance of engineers, scientists, philanthropists and volunteer fund raisers all of whom have one thing in common. None want to have an appointment with the grave or the furnace several decades from as of today.

De Grey is a man with a mission. Consider this improbable scenario: a hitherto unknown Cambridge scientist realises he holds the key to saving the lives of countless millions. What should he do? In that situation what ought YOU do? This is not some improbable science-fiction scenario. This is here and right now.

I for one do not want to die.

-Warn the public
-Recruit voulunteers
-Secure funds

The Race is ON
"What's likely to happen within the next 20 to 25, 30 years, we will develop technology that will buy a bit of time. We will develop rejuvenation technology that can be applied to people that are already middle-age and keep them middle-age, or less so to speak, for another 20 or 30 years. During that 20 or 30 years, the technology will be further advanced to give them another, let's say, 15 years, and so on."

-Aubrey de Grey: Chief Science Officer. SENS Foundation
Let's make it happen.
Let's Roll !

[ezeflyer]

I would like to live forever in a young body and with the knowledge and experience gained through the years. But that would interfere in the natural process of evolution and adaptation that benefits an entire species.

We were not designed to live long enough to turn into helpless, ugly, sick babies in our old age. Nature tries to kill us off then in so many ways.

We put old dogs to sleep so they won't suffer, but obligatory human suffering in old age is okay if there is profit in it or if religious authoritarians force you to suffer and die in pain.

One of the worst mistakes made in our generation was to imprison Dr. Kevorkian, who tried bravely to end this suffering on people who wanted to die.

[MalloMel]

I want to live to be a hundred and ten, as long as I am not a burden to someone else. I know that the chances of that are slim at best, but I wouldn't mind trying for it.

[shutterbabe]

To Ezeflyer,

Your thoughts echo many of my own on the aging debate- and in supporting the premise and life work of Dr. Kevorkian.

I lost my dearest friend just 3 weeks ago. She was only 54 years old. She obviously could not predict her own tragedy. Unfortunately, she did not have a Living Will. The doctors were brilliant at keeping a dying body alive indefinitely. I am certain she would have chosen a gentler death on her own terms. Mercifully, it finally arrived but her suffering was immeasurable.

POSTNOTE: Let us live life with care and consciousness but be prepared and have an Advanced Directive in place. It is the most compassionate thing one can do for yourself and those who love you.

[ezeflyer]

Thank you. I understand that in some states if your living will is not available, once they put tubes in you, they can't take them out even if someone can produce your living will afterwards.

[nexxtep54]

My goodness ! Lets extend the lifespan of everyone so that our already overpopulated planet has to nourish, accommodate and care for yet another linked generation. Let's use costly medical research to aid big pharma in their quest for a permanent and undying consumer base. And if there researchers can do this , lets spread the technology to the other 95% of the world's population. I don't want to seem cold, but when your time comes, your time should come.

[ezeflyer]

My sentiments exactly

[bluerthanblue15]

You said it well. Thank you!

[winningticket]

No I don't want to live forever. If I die by the age of 49 that would be fine with me.

[MalloMel]

No it wouldn't. Think about it. When you get to be 49, which you most certainly will, you will surely have second thoughts about what you just said. Believe me. Been there... Done that.

[MalloMel]

:)

[CrankyGal]

Yikes Win,

I am forty nine, it ain't that bad.

[Alwaysalily]

I don't want to live forever, but I've told my family that I'd like to be cloned.

[MalloMel]

Even if you are cloned, you will not be you. Just think, while you are still alive, a clone of you will not be you, no more than it will be you after you are dead. Sorry, but that just seems the way that it would go.

I've done it, but I'm sure that some philosopher can come up with some really cool stuff on this type of thing, if they really put their mind to it.

[AddyGmom]

How totally self absorbed to want to live forever!

[GetAbike]

Yup. You observation would certainly fir the only ones who will be able to afford it.
Additionally, I think growing extremely old, "living forever", falls into the category of "be careful what you wish for".

[undrgrndgirl]

NO ! for one thing, my soul mate passed away two years ago...i just can't imagine being stuck here indefinite­ly...besid­es people will STILL die - fatal accidents will still happen, murders, etc...not to mention the increased burden on the earth to produce enough energy, food, etc for a population that refuses to move on...nope, i don't want to live forever it's an EXTREMELY selfish desire/endeavor... ...i don't really care if i make it to 70...

[CintiBlue]

Agree, girl. When you start to loose people things change.

[jellybean1]

I want to live forever so I can k.ill myself.

[GetAbike]

Old age is over-rated.
From the "I just wanna die before I get old" generation, the old folk I remember died horrible deaths, with life prolonged beyond natural expectations.
nuff said.

[philosopherkingtomas]

no sane person wants to live forever!
cant sleep
cant poop on command
go to church too often
nursuing homes 45,000 a year,

[Harry Scrote]

No. Why? Because apparently, humans learn nothing from their history. And, like the saying, history keeps repeating itself. There are some mean mo fo's in this world.

[AndyWright68]

Forever? Yes!

Think of all the great minds that would still be with us today. We could have colonized other planets by now and would be exploring the universe.

Old age is a disease and living forever should be one of our goals. Anyone who says forever is too long is lying. That stems from the accept what you cannot change attitude.

[ezeflyer]

We live forever in the genes we pass on.

[JBS]

Forever is too long. The traditional "three score and ten" is not long enough.