The Future of Getting Old
At some point in the future, you will make the transition form being young to being old, but when? If, or I should say when, you find yourself being described as old, most likely by someone much younger, will there be a way to turn back the clock? Will technology save us from the ravages of old age? The answer is yes and no.
Over the years, technology has helped us turn back time. Need glasses? Have corrective laser eye surgery. Getting bald? Have micro-hair transplants. Getting wrinkles? Have a facelift. Knee giving you problems? Have an artificial knee installed.
There are already over 100 artificial parts doctors install on a daily basis. Artificial bones, joints, hearts, teeth, ears, skin and blood are just a few of the parts in an ever-growing list. If you count people who have capped teeth, wear a hearing aid, have an artificial lens in their eye or an artificial valve in their heart, the majority of adults in industrialized nations already have one or more artificial parts in their bodies.
As you might guess, the list of artificial parts we will put in our bodies to keep us young will grow dramatically over the next decade. But, you haven’t seen anything yet! During the first part of this new century, using combinations of stem cells, fetal cells and/or some form of genetic manipulation, we will take staying young and healthy to an entirely new level.
The New Science of Aging
Within the next few years, scientists will finish mapping the gene code of the human body. This revolution will take longer to unfold, due to bioethics, than the Net revolution we are now experiencing, but it will have far more profound, long-term implications.
We already know of over 4,000 genetic diseases. After completing the map, we will begin to find far more. Ever wonder why some people have allergies and others don’t? Ever wonder why some people have a bad temper and others don’t? These and a side variety of other questions will be answered by an increased understanding of our genes. Using this knowledge, we will first receive lifestyle counseling to help us combat the problems we have inherited. But this is only the beginning. By the second decade of this new century, we will begin to use gene therapy to correct our genetic defects. The result will be a major improvement of our health and longevity.
Grow Your Own Replacement Parts
The genetic revolution is big, but it’s not the only revolution affecting your health. Need a heart? Grown your own! Based on scientific breakthroughs that have already happened, I can see a time, but the very end of this decade or just beyond, when doctors will use your own genes to clone a specific body part that is degenerating, malfunctioning or diseased. The part will be rapid-grown outside of your body and then transplanted into your body, which will not reject it since it is made up of your own cells.
How Long Could We Live?
The latest research on aging suggests the human body is only capable of living for around 120 years. I’m suggesting that within the next 50 years we will extend this greatly as we look deeper into the microscopic makeup of the cell and learn to turn off the root cause of aging at the molecular level.
Of course, the goal isn’t to see how old you can be; it should be to see how long you can stay healthy.
So, will technology allow us to turn back our age-related clock? The answer is increasingly yes. The inevitable signs of aging will increasingly be traced to a failure of quality control in your chromosomes and genes. In a new study conducted at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California, scientists compared the effects of aging on 6,000 genes and found that 61 key genes went through dramatic changes from the age 9 to 90. These changes cause the dramatic symptoms of aging. Hair turning gray? Skin wrinkling? Muscles weaker? Can’t control your weight? No problem! We will use gene therapy to correct the condition.
Will technology save us from the ravages of old age? Up until the last few years of life, the answer will increasingly be yes. The good news is that if you are under ten years of age right now, your life expectancy will be adjusted up to 100 years old. By 2020, middle age will start around 65 to 70 years old. The bad news is that if you are in your 40s or older now, you will have missed the biggest window of time in terms of expanded life expectancy. It is important to remember that the key is not how long you will live, but the quality of life during those years. For all of us, the quality of life will be dramatically redefined and extended over the next 20 years.
One final thought. If the population of the earth will increase dramatically, will our planet be able to sustain billions of additional humans?
Daniel Burrus, one of the world's leading technology forecasters, business strategists, and author of six books
Copyright 2003 Author retains copyright. All Rights Reserved.
