Do you think that the diseases of old age will be cured?

sxt

Since the explosive growth in science , medicine and technology since the dawn of the industrial age..and the exponential growth in progress... since then... do you think that the diseases of aging will ever be cured ?

say_who_now?

Old age won't be a problem:

marshbaboon

Do you mean AIDS?

Wee Willy Harris

Are you insinuating that old age is a DISEASE?

rowz

Wee Willy Harris wrote: »

Are you insinuating that old age is a DISEASE?

Comes to us all.
Disease ?

opinion guy

I give my answer in song format

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izQB2-Kmiic

DEFTLEFTHAND

Certain cells which die over the course of time are never replaced. You can't cure that, we all have the terminal disease called life.

Sinfonia

A cure for Alzheimer's/dementia would be amazing.. scares the bejesus out of me

Wee Willy Harris

I think it's a vein pursuit and a waste of resources.

Keep me informed.

kraggy

Sinfonia wrote: »

A cure for Alzheimer's/dementia would be amazing.. scares the bejesus out of me

Scares me too. Lots of Omega 3 and vitamin B12 and we should be fine.

sxt

DEFTLEFTHAND wrote: »

Certain cells which die over the course of time are never replaced. You can't cure that, we all have the terminal disease called life.

Cells can be replaced if you have the know how

Galwayguy35

I read somewhere that for kids being born now living to 100 will be nothing special and that children born in the next few decades will regularly live to be 150.

I'm not sure how many diseases they will have a cure for though by the time we reach old age. I reckon it will be either cancer or a heart attack that will kill me though as both run in my family.

1ZRed

Well yeah, it's a guarantee a lot of diseases will be cured in the future, and we'd get there a lot faster if we discarded a lot of "ethics" and supported such things like stem cell research a bit more readily.

Once scientists begin to slow aging by controlling and slowing down the rate in which cells divide, we will live for longer and go without a lot of age related diseases caused by ongoing cell DNA damage/mutation over the course of a person's lifetime.

As accurately as I can remember, the mechanisms for doing which have already been applied in worms where the 'fight or flight' reflex has been triggered which extends the life of a cell by about 70% (this in worms, so not directly comparable to humans), causing the worm to live considerably longer without succumbing to age as quickly.
The same idea has been used to give lab mice around a 30% higher life expectancy over control mice.
Even if it takes decades, the same principles might be used as a way for us to fight aging.

So it's a complete guarantee that age related diseases will be cured eventually because science, technology and medicine will never stop progressing until it has discovered everything, and can treat, control and cure everything.

im invisible

Unless we nuke ourselves back to the stone age

Galwayguy35

In America it seems people have more money than sense, freezing their bodies in the hope of being "brought back to life".

BOF666

Galwayguy35 wrote: »

I read somewhere that for kids being born now living to 100 will be nothing special and that children born in the next few decades will regularly live to be 150.

I'm not sure how many diseases they will have a cure for though by the time we reach old age. I reckon it will be either cancer or a heart attack that will kill me though as both run in my family.

I hope they up the retirement age if that's the case! It'd be interesting to see how the next few hundred years pan out, I'd love to be around to see it!

False Prophet

Galwayguy35 wrote: »

In America it seems people have more money than sense, freezing their bodies in the hope of being "brought back to life".

If i had the money id do it, whats the worse that can happen:D

Micky Dolenz

Kill everyone on their 30th birthday. Problem solved.

mawk

Micky Dolenz wrote: »

Kill everyone on their 30th birthday. Problem solved.

morning logan

Micky Dolenz

Think of the savings to the health system and the job creation. This could be a runner.

Wee Willy Harris

sxt wrote: »

Cells can be replaced if you have the know how

I think you are alluding to fasting.

And I think it is related to subconsciously putting the brain into overdrive in wondering just where the fcuk its next meal is coming from as it's fairly essential for survival

i eat like sparrow, anyhow so probs cannot afford to attempt it. lest wee willy waste awayyy...

Pompey Magnus

Fingers crossed they don't find a cure for aging, can you just imagine what kind of punishment the future generations would inflict on us for all the **** they are going to have to clean up after we are gone?

Dravokivich

I'd rather get old and then die, thanks.

Duggy747

Eurgh, live to 150 when I'm already all old and creaky once I'm in my 80's?

Would be torture.

Where To

In the future people will be more machine than human and will live for thousands of years or until their hard drive packs up. So two years if they are a Toshiba.

I'm happy in the here and now thank you

Uriel.

It all comes down to quality versus quantity.

I'll be honest. The way I feel right now I'd love to live to 150. Death holds fear for me.

However, at the same time, if I when I reached the age of 80 and had the average mobility and overall health of the average 80 yr old today and had to live like that for another 70 years, then I wouldn't like to live to 150.

I think progressively the average life expectancy of the humans in the 1st world will gradually increase but that's about it.

seamus

DEFTLEFTHAND wrote: »

Certain cells which die over the course of time are never replaced. You can't cure that, we all have the terminal disease called life.

While it's true that some cells aren't replaced after dying, it's not true to say that they can't be regenerated.
Alzheimer's is the next big one on the list. What makes an Alzheimer's cure so important is not so much the ability to save people from the disease, but the research has literally thousands of other possible applications, from repairing acquired brain injury, to improve cognitive function in disabled or impaired people.
Maybe not a cure in our lifetimes, but we should start to see the fruits of neurological research within the next 30 years.

the groutch

the doctors/scientists have it too good to go about curing diseases.
it's much more profitable for them to create drugs and other long term treatments than cure it outright.
they're not going to do themselves out of a job.

False Prophet

the groutch wrote: »

the doctors/scientists have it too good to go about curing diseases.
it's much more profitable for them to create drugs and other long term treatments than cure it outright.
they're not going to do themselves out of a job.

Lies,I've seen many millionaire baddies in films with diseases paying scientists to come up with a cure;)

CreepingDeath

Death and disease are functions of life.

The evolutionary purpose of death is to get rid of the parents once the kids are old enough to look after themselves, and maybe help out with the grandkids.

Once the parents have done their job, evolution lets them die to make way and leave resources for the kids.

People retire at 65, so if they lived to 120 that would make up nearly 50% of the population over retirement age, and drawing pensions from the rest.

sparkthatbled

Uriel. wrote: »

It all comes down to quality versus quantity.

I'll be honest. The way I feel right now I'd love to live to 150. Death holds fear for me.

However, at the same time, if I when I reached the age of 80 and had the average mobility and overall health of the average 80 yr old today and had to live like that for another 70 years, then I wouldn't like to live to 150.

I think progressively the average life expectancy of the humans in the 1st world will gradually increase but that's about it.

Agree with this statement. I wouldn't expect science to extend lifespans too far, though, and i think we can forget about overcoming death altogether, despite all the science journal articles cropping up that say it's theoretically possible. As amazing as it would be to live forever, it would have to mean a ban on reproduction/strict population control and, without new minds with new ideas, scientific progress in all fields would soon grind to a halt. It would just be too detrimental to mankind for people to live much longer than they do right now. Sad to admit, because death holds fear for me too. I also think that if some kind of treatment were developed to extend lifespans it would be an ongoing thing and a decision would probably be made to administer it to only those under a certain age (and the cynic in me says also of a certain level of affluence).

My prediction is some form of treatment that will slow your aging so that around the age of 100-120 you'd be the equivalent to retirement age, at which point you stop receiving treatment and will age naturally for the rest of your years.

False Prophet

sparkthatbled wrote: »

Agree with this statement. I wouldn't expect science to extend lifespans too far, though, and i think we can forget about overcoming death altogether, despite all the science journal articles cropping up that say it's theoretically possible. As amazing as it would be to live forever, it would have to mean a ban on reproduction/strict population control and, without new minds with new ideas, scientific progress in all fields would soon grind to a halt. It would just be too detrimental to mankind for people to live much longer than they do right now. Sad to admit, because death holds fear for me too. I also think that if some kind of treatment were developed to extend lifespans it would be an ongoing thing and a decision would probably be made to administer it to only those under a certain age (and the cynic in me says also of a certain level of affluence).

My prediction is some form of treatment that will slow your aging so that around the age of 100-120 you'd be the equivalent to retirement age, at which point you stop receiving treatment and will age naturally for the rest of your years.

You seem to be thinking too short term, when the iphone1trillion comes out the basic functions will be to live forever. Dont forget that by that time we can set population up in space and other planets etc

indioblack

sxt wrote: »

Since the explosive growth in science , medicine and technology since the dawn of the industrial age..and the exponential growth in progress... since then... do you think that the diseases of aging will ever be cured ?

I do hope so - I'm in that category myself - so, yes, but hurry up about it!

Galwayguy35

Some animals seem to have the secret to long life.

BOF666

Galwayguy35 wrote: »

Some animals seem to have the secret to long life.

Yeah there's some jellyfish that they think may have an indefinite lifespan.

As far as I know, tortoises don't age physically either, it's usually disease or predators that kill them. But their bodies don't wear out when they get old.

DipStick McSwindler

This post has been deleted.

Wibbs

Yes. If we chose to. After all it's an engineering problem, there's no laws of physics being broken. It should in the future be possible to keep an organism/human at a certain age. It would require some fancy engineering alright, but that's not beyond the bounds of possibility.

indioblack

Micky Dolenz wrote: »

Kill everyone on their 30th birthday. Problem solved.

Yep - how old are you now, Micky?