Living to be 100+

Living to be 100+ is in the cards, according to a new book, 100+, reviewed in the WSJ. In the review this is said:

Such a development [growing new limbs] would be a cause for joy, of course, but it's worthwhile to keep in mind the ecstatic predictions a few years ago of the breakthroughs that would be made possible by human-genome sequencing—and the modest gains that have so far resulted. Gene therapy, too, was promoted as a likely source of astonishing medical progress but has recently run into obstacles and setbacks. Predictions are easy; science is hard.

Modest gains, indeed. Let's add to that no modest gains for the hyped embryonic stem cell therapies. The news is full of predictions--it sells. "Possibility of life on Mars increases!" Really? Seriously, the longevity enjoyed or imagined by affluent westerners today, it may be argued, is spiritually detrimental, giving the illusion of many many decades of affluence and consumption ahead, and lots of time to play, and play. This approach to life aids self-deception and certainly diverts one attention from the Number One issue faced by man: death. That's what the Gospel is all about. The Good News isn't good news if you rarely if ever think about the bad news kept at bay, skillfully out of sight.

Comments

[David]

I'm also struck at how the extended ages of the patriarchs in the Old Testament are dismissed so readily, while on the other hand, science is supposed to reveal how "easy" it is to live so much longer. Despite all the problems in the way, it's almost as if the human body were meant to last much longer....

[Robert Espe]

I've always noted that in the Psalms it says that a man's span is 70, or by great strength, 80 years. It reveals the problem with comparing "average" life expectancies, namely, that while infant mortality, and the realities of harsh existence (starvation, bandits, etc) may pull your average down, those who weren't killed were dying the same time then as people tend to now. Sure we have a handful of people who live to be 100+, but if you look at their lives they really just have a combination of good luck and strong genetics, nothing anyone can do to make themselves that way.

[Sanity Inspector]

"Classical Man's worst fear was an inglorious death. Modern Man's worst fear is just death."
-- Nassim Nicholas Taleb

[Jim Kushiner]

I've read many "lives of the saints" the last few years, and you will find many ascetics and others sometimes living to 100 or 105 or at least their 90s. Touchstone published an article on the topic of longevity: Fast Long and Prosper, on the Misguided Quest for Longevity (http://www.touchstonemag.com/archives/issue.php?id=161) You can buy the issue on-line but not the article by itself (yet).