Extending human life is one of the most exciting issues for people on Earth at all times. The search for means and technologies for achieving immortality – or at least a significant extension of life – is one of those fundamental tasks that have occupied the best minds of humanity since the birth of civilization.
Ancient explorers, medieval alchemists, and modern scientists have all considered many hypothetical ways to extend life. Let’s look at 10 different ways to extend human life. Some of them don’t guarantee immortality, but they are available to everyone right now; others are more ambitious, complex, expensive, and will take 10-100 years to fully implement.
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Genetic engineering
Some proponents of this approach argue that the aging mechanism for all living beings is programmed into the genetic code, and from this point of view, genome modification is the only real way to radically extend life.
Other geneticists believe that literally engineering the human genome is too dangerous and unpredictable an approach, the negative consequences of which may only become apparent after several generations.
For this reason, gene therapy now most often means finding substances that can effectively block the work of genes responsible for aging. The most famous company in this field is Calico, founded by Google in 2013.
Regenerative medicine
The restorative direction of the fight against aging includes a wide variety of plans for regeneration – from quite reasonable ones, such as growing exact copies of organs in bioreactors, to surreal ideas about transplanting a person’s head onto a new body.
There have already been significant achievements in the regenerative field: scientists have managed to restore the heart muscle of a pig after damage due to a heart attack. Experiments on mice to restore spinal cord damage have been successful – the paralyzed rodents regained mobility.
Stem cell transplants are already being used to treat corneal damage, and a treatment for insulin-dependent diabetes will soon be tested in humans by transplanting the cells into the liver, where they produce insulin in the same way the pancreas normally does.
Nanomedicine
In this segment, scientists are working on creating nanomechanisms and nanorobots for targeted delivery of drugs and performing operations at the nanolevel – destroying blood clots and tumors, restoring damaged cells and tissues.
Several nanodrugs for cancer treatment have already entered human clinical trials. Rice University recently demonstrated an infrared laser-based welder for joining cut tissues at the molecular level.
Cyborgization
Some enthusiasts in this field are seriously discussing transplanting a human head onto an ageless biomechanical body. How the issue of aging of the transplanted head will be resolved remains unclear.
A more realistic scenario involves partial replacement of damaged organs with bionic analogues. At this stage, the most promising segment of cyborgization is the creation of highly functional bionic prostheses for people born without limbs or who have lost them due to injury.
Life in space
Some researchers of the effect of reduced gravity claim that living in conditions close to weightlessness can significantly extend lifespan. There have been suggestions about the creation of space nursing homes in the future. It seems utopian, but there are already real steps.
For example, billionaire Elon Musk actively promotes the colonization of Mars. He actively invests in the project of developing Mars and creating the first experimental colonies with subsequent mass resettlement of people to the Red Planet.
Cryonics
Cryopreservation and the similar idea of slowing down life in anabiosis have many supporters. Proponents of this method point to the absolute preservation of tissues in conditions of ultra-low temperatures using cryoprotectors.
There are 4 major companies providing cryonics services – three of them are located in the USA, one – in Russia (KrioRus). All of them provide services for freezing deceased people and, if necessary, deceased pets. In the future, when the problems of aging and incurable diseases are solved, cryonics patients will be defrosted and made healthy and immortal.
Successful experiments in the field of immersion in suspended animation were conducted on animals – after artificially induced clinical death lasting 3 hours, experimental dogs, pigs and rats were safely brought back to life.
Cloning
This direction is one of the most promising, and at the same time, the most controversial from the point of view of bioethics. Stem cells needed to grow exact copies of organs must be extracted from embryos. The most practical and least controversial area is partial therapeutic cloning of individual organs and tissues for transplantation.
All experiments on reproductive (full) human cloning are prohibited in most countries just in case, and so far there is no reliable information about cloned people.
The restrictions do not apply to animal cloning. Commercial cloning of domestic pets has been available since the early 2000s, with services provided by private companies in the US, China and Korea. The cost of cloning a dog in a Chinese lab is estimated at $53,550, and a cat at $35,400.
Healthy lifestyle
Healthy habits increase the length and quality of life. The main elements of a healthy lifestyle are personalized nutrition, physical exercise, sufficient sleep, positive thinking and a life purpose.
These methods seem trivial at first glance. However, they all have a scientifically proven effect on life expectancy.
For example, building muscle mass increases the number of stem cells, an individual nutritional plan based on microbiota strengthens the immune system and normalizes the hormonal system, and sufficient sleep improves metabolism and helps get rid of depression.
Geroprotectors
People tried to prolong life with the help of special potions already in the Middle Ages. Modern developments do not promise immortality, but, compared to “elixirs of youth”, they have some proven effect.
Antioxidants, vitamins, hormonal regulators of metabolism and signaling pathways, senolytics and neuropeptides are used as life-extending drugs. Biohacking supporters combine a healthy lifestyle and geroprotectors (often with unproven effectiveness).
Transference of consciousness
Saving consciousness on an external storage device, in a supercomputer or in cloud storage is one of the most popular themes in science fiction. The famous series “Black Mirror” has at least 5 episodes related to this concept.
As with body cloning, the idea of mind cloning faces a bioethical problem – it is difficult to imagine how consciousness would feel without a body, especially in the case of a parallel existence with a still-living original. At the same time, several theoretical applications have already been found for the still hypothetical uploaded consciousness – for example, extremely long interstellar travel.
In parallel with the idea of transferring a copy of consciousness, scientific work has been underway since 2005 to create artificial models of the brain and consciousness. Among the largest projects are the collaboration between the Swiss Technical University of Lausanne and IBM within the Blue Brain Project; the Human Brain Project, funded by the European Union; the BRAIN Initiative in the USA; the China Brain Project in China and Brain/MINDS in Japan.
