Who Wants to Live Forever?
Mythology and legends abounds with characters with long or endless lives: Methuselah, Ziusudra of Shuruppak, The Eternal Jew, Merlin the Magician, and the Count of St. Germain. Some of these characters are portrayed as tragic, maybe as cautionary tales for people who dream of eternal lives rather than enjoying the few decades they have on. Nevertheless, achieving immortality and eternal youth has been a quest for mankind for as long as we have dabbled in magic, alchemy, or science. The famous Philosopher’s Stone of alchemy, which can turn base metals to gold, was supposed to be just a step on the way to immortality. After all, how can you enjoy wealth if you are dead?
The 21st century may be the time when the dream of immortality comes true. Genetic technology and other scientific breakthroughs point at the possibility of suspending ageing within a lifetime from now, making it possible to live, if not forever, the at least indefinitely.
Ageing is a complex thing. One single miracle pill is not going to do the trick. Still, we have learned a lot about several of the factors that cause ageing and are on the track for solutions to them. One of the factors that cause ageing is known as telomere attrition. During cellular reproduction, the extreme ends of chromosomes are lost, and because of that, our chromosomes are equipped with telomeres, non-functional DNA sequences at the end that can safely be cut off without loss of important genetic information. After a certain number of cell divisions, there is no telomeric DNA left, and in further cell divisions, genetic information is lost and the cells lose some important functions. There exists, however, an enzyme called telomerase that replenishes telomeres. In the presence of this enzyme, cell division doesn’t shorten telomeres, and the cells can keep dividing indefinitely without loss of information. Experimental gene therapy on mice have given them the ability to produce their own telomerase, and such mice have double normal lifespans. To my knowledge, the same experiment hasn’t been done on humans, though I suspect that there are people willing to pay scientists handsomely for the procedure.
Keeping telomeres long is far from enough, however. Cells often mutate, causing the DNA to slowly change, and rarely in a good way. This problem is more difficult to handle, but it may be possible to produce viruses that infect hosts and repair faulty DNA sequences by replacing nucleotides. This will have to be done regularly for every possible mutation in order to ensure genetic instability, and it may not be practical.
Then there is cellular senescence, the fact that some cells stop functioning, yet remain in our bodies, often secreting toxins that damage other cells. There are, however, certain experimental treatments that may remove or kill senescent cells, so we may be able to solve this problem within a decade or two.
Experiments with mice have shown that there is something in old mice’s blood that causes ageing like brain deterioration and reduced repair of damaged tissue. Linking the blood stream of an old mouse with that of a young mouse seems to not just end, but even reverse ageing in the old mouse, and this has led some to believe that old people could be rejuvenated through injections of blood plasma from young people. Companies have indeed sprung up that charge huge fees for such treatments. The issue, however, does seem to be a little more complex that originally believed, and repeated injections of young blood may cause more damage than good. Even so, if we can identify whatever it is in old blood that causes the detrimental effects, we may develop remedies and even gene therapies to rectify the problem.
In addition to the above, there are a host of other factors involved in ageing, too numerous to mention here. Many of these have to do with deterioration of organs. As we grow old, our hearts and livers, etc., wear out, slowly increasing the risk of serious disorders with old age. Replacing rundown organs with new ones, the way we do with worn-out machine parts, may be necessary to extend human lives beyond the current limit of around 120 years. Research is being done into growing immune-compatible replacement organs from stem cells, usually by flushing cells out of donor organs leaving behind the cartilage structure as a scaffold for the stem cells to grow into. In the near future, such scaffolding could feasibly be 3D-printed, eliminating the need of donors.
As an alternative, we may construct entirely artificial biomechanical organs that perform the same functions as our natural ones, perhaps even better as the technology improves. As we replace more and more natural organs with artificial ones, we will turn into cyborgs and maybe eventually into something very like robots. The big question is if we can replace parts of our brains with artificial or donor parts without losing whatever it is that makes us us; a continuation of consciousness or a soul, if you like. We can also discuss if we somewhere along the way cease to human in any meaningful way. We are more than our brains. Many of our feelings are results of chemical reactions to external stimuli somewhere in our bodies, and without this chemical input to our brains, we may become as cold and emotionless as robots in fiction.
It may even become possible for us to regenerate damaged or even lost organs. Many animals are capable of impressive feats of regeneration, like lizards regrowing lost tails or starfish regrowing lost arms. One of the most remarkable is the humble axolotl, an aquatic salamander capable of regenerating limbs, organs, and even its spinal cord, without scarring. By studying such creatures, we might find a way to gain similar regenerative abilities. This is not as far-fetched as it may sound; humans have been known to regenerate fingertips, including bones and skin. Studying animals may provide other clues to longevity. Recently, researchers have identified synergistic cellular pathways for longevity that increase lifespan fivefold in C. elegans, a nematode worm often used as a model in ageing research because it shares many genes with humans. Whether this can be used to extend human lives to 400 years or more remains unclear; after all, the lifetime of a nematode is only a few weeks, hardly comparable to ours.
Dramatically extending human lives and ending ageing may thus be within our grasp within this century, through a combination of methods rather than a single miracle cure. Similarly dramatic advances in technology have been achieved before; it e.g. only took 65 years from the first motorised flight until people walked on the Moon. Some people born today may well come to experience lifetimes in good health measured in centuries rather than decades. Even if we don’t have all the answers this century, part solutions may allow people to survive until we have the full package.
Looking beyond science, there are several issues with such longevity. For one, we must imagine that the treatments initially will be very expensive and hence only available to a small, economic elite. Corporate CEOs, world leaders, and billionaire investors will not have to retire as they grow old, but can remain in their seats of power for centuries, preventing any radical innovation that might come with generational succession. Indeed, they will likely use all their powers to fight any change that might upset the status quo that leaves them in power. Immortal leaders will become risk-averse, since any bad choice could hurt them for the rest of their endless lives. Societal evolution will grind to a standstill, and new technology will only be funded if it is considered ‘safe’ by the elite. Perhaps we will see some succession as palace coups when young immortals become sick of waiting forever for their elders to relinquish power, but the new boss is likely to be just like the old boss.
Later, when (or if) longevity becomes available to the masses, there is the question of overpopulation. With no people dying of old age, and few people dying of other causes, the Earth will soon overflow with people. We may establish colonies in space, but moving the surplus population off the planet may be an insurmountable problem. Currently, 140 million people are born every year, and even with a net annual population growth of 100 million, almost 300,000 people will have to be moved permanently off planet every single day, with new homes built for them in space.
It may be necessary to limit births to not exceed deaths. Even though a lot of people would still die from accidents, violence, suicides, or the rare disease for which no cure has been found, children will become a rare sight in society. Who will be allowed to have children may be decided by lottery, or there may be a huge fee, based on the argument that having lots of money means you have lots of positive traits that should be preserved in the gene pool — perhaps traits that you have inherited along with your money. Or maybe computers will survey the genomes of all the people on the planet and scientifically match couples whose combined DNA show the most promise. Hello, Ivan, this will be the mother of your child; and hello, Mahala, this will be he father of yours. Take it or leave it; you won’t get another opportunity to have children for the next century or so. Or go to Mars; they still have room for more people. Not the most pleasant place to live, but you can’t be choosy. Or you can choose to join the gladiator death fights: Two will enter, one will leave and be allowed to have a child. Great entertainment for the masses.
Alternatively, you may have to accomplish something special before you are fifty in order to be allowed access to the longevity treatments: become a popular artist, invent something useful, contribute something important to science or philosophy, become elected to the world parliament, or make a lot of money. We don’t want any deadbeats around in the brave new world. If you fail, you will be painlessly killed; after all, we don’t like to see any old people walking around; it makes us queasy.
Immortality and eternal youth may be a dream for the individual, but it might prove to be a nightmare for our future society and the individuals who will have to live in it — or most of them, anyway. The people on top — the firstborn immortals — will likely have it made. Maybe forever.
