Want to live forever? Your 2 Incredible Ages

“Three weeks ago I turned 92.” That meant that she was born in 1958. But she is a young woman! She looked just stunning in her orange butterfly print summer dress. Even though I was in a state of utter disbelief, I noticed that she was studying my reaction carefully. Her wistful smile told me that she had liked to shock me. I couldn’t believe that the technology had advanced so quickly. Of course, I had heard about some of the giant strides that had happened in rejuvenation tech but I hadn’t realised quite how far it had come. “My biological age is 24 years” she continued…

Is this a realistic scenario? Could scene a bit like this play out in only 3 decades time?

I for one think so. It’s not a certainty but I believe it to be quite a likely scenario.

Today, even death is under attack. Technology advances in leaps and bounds. More research than ever is undertaken in the biomedical arena.

We each have two ages and at the same time: A Chronological Age, the time passed since your birth. If you were born in 1970, like me, then in 2017 you will celebrate your 47th chronological birthday.

Your chronological age is a well defined, exact age. Chronological age cannot be changed. If you were born in 1982 then that, obviously, is not going to change. The unlikely prospect of the invention of human time-travel notwithstanding.

But we also each have a Biological Age, the age of our bodies. A good way to express this would be as the wear and tear your body has experienced to date. And, of course, the chronological and biological ages will approximately be the same for most people — a 58-year-old will inhabit the body of a 58-year-old. Usually.

Biological age is not fixed. Having said that, we do not yet have an agreed, objective way of measuring it. But that does not mean that biological age not exist — it most certainly does. Your body will be in a given state of disrepair and its effective function will be impaired by the accumulated micro and macro damage of how you’ve lived. However, reading the bodily deterioration in an accurate and precise way is a complex task that scientists are still coming to grips with.

If you have lived life with little regard for your bodily health then your biological age will most likely be greater than your chronological age.

On the other hand, if you have lived a gentle, healthy life then a hypothetical measurement of your biological age may well come in lower than your chronological age.

Our current level of biomedical technology does not allow for a significant reduction in one’s biological age.

But this will change! Rejuvenation Technology will diverge people’s ages.

If you survived long enough to experience rejuvenation technology then your body’s biological age will be reduced.

The diagram illustrates the difference in a life lived naturally and without rejuvenation (red line) and an older person experiencing the effect of gradual rejuvenation (green line).

For the red line, biological age increases in lockstep with chronological age. All things being equal this is what happens to the average person alive today. Lifestyle and environment choices can have a dramatic effect on biological age. I recommend reducing risk factors that adversely affect your biological age.

The green guy, had made it across the ‘Chasm of No Available Rejuvenation Tech’, ie. the next 30 to 50 years, by closely managing his biological risk factors (also not being too old to start with and a bit of luck). He’s been gradually been rejuvenated and his ages have diverged: Biological Age: stable at 24 years with ongoing rejuvenation treatment; Chronological Age: 86 years and going up 1 year for every year.

Action Points

• Live a gentle life if can manage it. Reduce stressors and learn how to cope better with stress.
• Don’t worry about getting older. Just make it through the next 30 to 50 years, the Chasm of No Available Rejuvenation Tech. We’ll create a plan on how to do this in a future article.
• Plan to start accumulating resources to pay for future rejuvenation tech. You can be slow and deliberate here — there is much time.