In a pioneering study, researchers from Harvard Medical School, University of Maine, and MIT have introduced a chemical method for reversing cellular aging. This revolutionary approach offers a potential alternative to gene therapy for age reversal. The findings could transform treatments for age-re
Age Reversal Breakthrough: Harvard/MIT Discovery Could Enable Whole-Body Rejuvenation::In a pioneering study, researchers from Harvard Medical School, University of Maine, and MIT have introduced a chemical method for reversing cellular aging. This revolutionary approach offers a potential alternative to gene therapy for age reversal. The findings could transform treatments for age-re
Jokes aside, are we just cribbing from sci-fi cart blânche these days?! I mean, sure "Art imitates Life imitates Art", but still. When the only dead are the poors (>99% of humanity itself), the entire species will certainly collapse. (Where's the "bridge of nose pinch + sigh" emoji when you need it?) 🤷🏼♂️
Tldr; seems like decent science and the compounds used are fairly ordinary ones for the most part. Note however this is all in vitro so far and it might be a challenge to deliver the same chemicals in the same concentrations to all the senescent cells of the body.
Prepare to see these ingredients added in insignificant amounts to expensive skin creams before the year is out, whether they can penetrate the epidermis or not
Even if for the rich, this would be good news. The rich and powerful will stop ignoring things like distant climate related deadlines, if they think they'll be alive to feel their effects.
I honestly don't think so. I don't think they care of the condition worsen, including theirs as long as they stay above the poorer people.
Like, if we look at the living condition of a medieval era king. You live in a stone castle do your bedroom as freezing temperature in winter, terrible healthcare so you might be in terrible pain for things that easily treatable, no hygiene the smells everywhere must be horrible... Compared with the comfort of a normal person in a developed country. ( Not the US though, now like Denmark or Switzerland) the modern life is clearly way more comfortable.
However I suspect that a lot of people, especially richer people would prefer to be the king, despite the conditions.
If this take is anything like whales with stock they’ll just jump ship onto the next country/planet to start over it’s a never ending cycle
A lot of the rich/ultra wealthy are selfish and don’t give a fuck unless it directly affects them so I don’t foresee any accountability if the planet Implodes instead they’ll just fling their money at the next thing that buys them a ticket out of here
I see one potential good thing though: maybe people would be less interested in killing the only planet that supports human life if they knew they were going to be on it forever.
The sci-fi type implications of this would be astounding. We would see a rapidly increasing global population with high natural resource use. On a philosophical level, is living forever a blessing or a curse?
It's not a path to living forever; cells can't reproduce once they burn through their telemeres. What this is is a way to have a youthful body at an older age so you won't spend the last years of your life frail and wrinkly
I'm betting any genuine anti-aging therapy is going to be a complex mess of many treatments. Top off the telomeres, error-correct the DNA, roto-rooter the arteries, reprogram cells, etc...
I doubt that will be the reality of any such breakthroughs, at least not for a long time. But I think the solution in such a scenario would have to be sterilization of everyone on earth by default. Sterilization which could be temporarily reversed to allow someone to have a child via a controlled application process just to meet the rate of replacement.
Biochemist here, It's almost certainly an overhyped study. The operative term being used here is "potentially" full body rejuvenation is possible. It doesn't address issues such as administration of the therapy in tissues with virtually no turnover rate, including cardiac tissue, skeletal muscle, and nervous tissue. You cannot renew something that the body doesn't naturally replace via the cell cycle.
Why a cure for ageing would benefit everyone and not solely the ultra wealthy
If you put aside ethical and humanitarian reasons for making a cure for ageing widely available, there is still economic considerations, i.e. if you are a government you will be presented with a choice between:
Do I pay to treat people for ageing, even though the treatment might initially be expensive, or do I let them age without intervention?
The former option might actually be significantly cheaper because people in an advanced state of ageing cost more money. They have more diseases, since many diseases are age related such as dementia, cancer and cardiac disease, and need more healthcare and also can't work anymore.
If instead, the government pays for rejuvenation treatment they save on all the other healthcare costs and their people don't have to stop being productive.
So perhaps in the future when a cure for ageing is actually developed it will be made available for everyone rich and poor alike
Let me start by saying that I haven't read the article or the study, but I would be very suspicious that this could stop, slow, delay or reverse cancer. In fact, I would guess that it would actually cause more cancer. I hope I'm wrong.
We would also have to consider the impact of people living longer would have on the environment. People will still be having kids, and if you were going to live longer you might want to have many more kids while you're young. Our rock is going to get pretty crowded really fast if people stop dying of old age.
Then there's the point about people still being 'productive' to society. Honestly, if I'm going to live longer, I don't want it to be so I can continue to be productive. I don't like being productive as it is. I'd prefer that humanity focus first on fixing our economy before trying to extend our lives.
Despite appearances, I'm not trying to argue with you for the sake of argument, but more just putting other ideas out there to consider. I do hope your vision is right, and this will be something available to everyone and helps to make our final years more pleasant.