The Paradox of Ultra-Longevity: A Responsible Approach to Extending Healthspan
Reflections on the article in The Times: Search for longer life ‘could be catastrophic’ for planet
Be careful what we wish for. Ultra longevity is likely to be a very short-lived, unloved state of being, and, as a recent article in The Times suggested, a double-edged sword. For me and you, Great. Maybe. Globally, it’s utterly unsustainable, almost certainly. That said we the future Gerocratswith enough wealth to live to double today’s 75 years old will keep our history present and accelerate accessibility to many more. Let’s be abundantly optimistic and mindfully realistic. Think tanks will help us navigate the ethics, economics and policy needed if we are to invest in not dying and living to regret it.
The Nobel Prize, XPRIZE, and Longitude Prize winners should work for the following:-
1. Halving sickspan (at least) by 2040.
Expanding Healthspan, to give us 5-10 more years quality life with no life extension is not fantasy. Especially Workspan from 60 to 90. Don’t be old and unemployable for too long. This is a great 2021 review paper on the healthspan-lifespan gap https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8460831/
This is the easiest target. There is still the tragedy of cancer to contend with but on the whole this is feasible.
2. Being 60 at 90 by 2064 (when I’m 90!)
VO2 max of 30mls/min/O2/kg at 90 is a real number we can aim for. Keeping strength, aerobic capacity and skeletal strength at preretirement levels is a North Star. 90/60 is a good blood pressure to aim for.Mental 60 ness at 60 in a dementia free world may need more work but it’s doable. It’s the very metric we work towards for our patients blessed with otherwise good health.
3. 100% Network Strength at 100 by ????
Having the same social life and independence at100 as at 50. I have no idea how we’re going to achieve it. Demographics are causing expansion like our galaxies with generations eventually unable to even see one another. This needs work. And children. Lots of them and then again we need to feed everyone and not cook the planet. Hard.
But we do need a healthy planet too. And an equitable one. I got a feeling we maybe all focusing on the wrong stuff if it’s only the longevity, and not the eudaimonia, of one species, or one race or one religion we care about.