"In 2100 life expectancy in the rich countries will be around 5,000 years," predicts Aubrey de Gray, a researcher at the University of Cambridge
Nicholas Kristof
Want to live to the age of 600? This question may not be as absurd as it sounds. Genetic medicine is advancing by leaps and bounds, and it is possible that it holds the promise - or the danger - of finally giving us something close to eternal life. "In 2100 life expectancy in the rich countries will be around 5,000 years," predicts Aubrey de Grey, a researcher at the University of Cambridge (of course, none of us will be around in 2100 to mock him if he's wrong).
In the days when we all fear that nuclear terrorists will bomb us tomorrow, the worry that we might one day stay alive forever seems strange. But just to give you something new to bite your lip about, let me tell you about ringworms.
Ringworms are an ideal species for genetic games because they age and die in less than three weeks. By playing with two genes, geneticists have created ringworms that live six times their normal lifespan. The catch is that these worms are unusually lethargic and lethargic.
Other research on aging focuses on human cells. Scientists believe there is a natural limit to the number of times such cells can divide in tissue culture, before they age and die. But some research shows that human cells that receive a copy of the gene that codes for the telomerase enzyme can divide indefinitely - a step toward eternal life.
"The high priests of our secular age, the molecular biologists,
They began to deal with the issue of mortality in a way that no generation or society had ever dreamed of", writes Steven Hall in his new book "Merchants of Immortality".
The feeling is that we are drifting towards new genetic technologies without thinking about where we are headed, without adequate oversight mechanisms and without sufficient scientific education that will allow citizens to make decisions based on knowledge and understanding. After all, life extension is not everything. Castration brings longevity, but few of us will choose this option.
Congress has yet to pass a law banning human cloning for reproductive purposes (also because the proposed law goes too far), but the fundamental questions in genetics go far beyond cloning. "We have evolved to a situation where we can control our own evolution," says Charles Kantor, the chief scientific officer at the gene discovery company Sequenom, "I don't think we have the intelligence necessary to succeed in this, but we have the tools."
What does it mean to control our evolution? Think about dogs. DNA tests show that modern dogs evolved from wolves and were first developed by cavemen who knew nothing about the genome. But the dogs soon became everything from poodles to Great Danes. If we start reshaping our genetic code, we can presumably achieve even greater diversity among our offspring.
Part of my concern is that I lived in China in the early 90s when a much more modest technology, ultrasound, became available. The ultrasound machines can save lives, but in China they are used to find out the gender of fetuses and abort the females. Now the proportion of boys born there is one-sixth greater than the proportion of girls.
We are now heading down a similar path towards genetic manipulation, a technology we must embrace - but with caution. It will reshape humanity far more than fire, electricity, space exploration, or any other field of science did.
Perhaps we should remember the wisdom of Odysseus who refused the nymph Calypso's offer to live eternal life with her, preferring to grow old and die with his wife Penelope.
Idan the human genome - the moral aspect
https://www.hayadan.org.il/BuildaGate4/general2/data_card.php?Cat=~~~607548520~~~45&SiteName=hayadan
