If you could live forever, as some #longevity and anti #aging researchers claim will be possible someday, would you even want to?
I'd love to hear your reasonings via comments, and please respond to the poll. I'm working on an article about the science of all this for @medium.
@robertroybritt @medium molecular biologist here. As much as it sounds appealing, I can say that living “forever” won’t come without drawbacks. Some effects of aging can’t be reversed or avoided, so even if we could extend cell life forever by countering the mechanisms that lead to aging there are parts of us that won’t be able to repair or keep up. In the end it won’t be forever, and it will be painful. And even if we break all barriers to aging, I’m not sure I would like to live eternally. 1/2
@iPabloSB These are all great points and serious questions that would have to be addressed.
@robertroybritt @medium First, the planet won’t sustain it. There wouldn’t be population replacement. No kids, no new people. We would need to colonize other worlds to achieve it. And then, at what stage of our life we end up living? Forever old? Forever teen? Forever 30-50 years old? And it probably will be expensive to pay. Only people with access to lots of money would be able to afford it. Another hit to those struggling, which will be now “finite” vs the immortal rich. Sounds distopic 2/2