}

Friday, December 15, 2017

Aging, dying and not doing either

Over time, most of us become keenly aware that we are ageing, and that means that, ultimately, that the years ahead of us are fewer than the years behind us. It could be knees that don’t work as well as they used to, receding hairlines, serious health problems, or anything else that brings the reality home to us. And then some us will think, what if we could stop all that nonsense? What if we could stop ageing? What if we could be immortal?

Earlier this week I watched some related videos on this subject. Together they talk about the state of research and, based on that, what is currently believed to be possible in “curing” ageing and, perhaps, stopping death itself. I was reminded of these today when TVNZ’s ONE News broadcast a BBC story on how gene therapy has seemingly reversed haemophilia Type A. It was one of the most extraordinary medical science stories I’ve seen in a long time. And it got me to thinking, if scientists could find a way to repair that defective gene, what other ones, genes related to ageing, might they also figure out how to fix?

The first video was from a YouTube Channel called Kutzgesagt – In a Nutshell:



The next video in the series is from CGP Grey:



Since then, Kurtzgesagt has released another video on the topic:


Together, these three videos give some glimpses about what may be possible to “cure” ageing, maybe even death. The latest news about successful gene therapy suggests that at least some of these brave new ideas may actually come true. I hope I live to see any of it, even if it’s too late to help me personally. I’d like to know that humanity will endure and that in the future life will be a better. But, then, that's always true.

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