human life to 1000 years and longer

Discovery Channel had an interesting segment on this weekend hosted by Michio Kaku a CCNY theoretical physicist. It was about cosmic time scales in general which documented the age of the earth at 4.5 billion years and the burnout of the sun at another 4.5 billion years. Meaning that the earth will have survived 9 billion years barring any unknown event lurking out in the vastness. For further reference the age of the universe is estimated at about 14 billion years - since the big bang and who knows what was going on before then. The point being that the human time scale is but a mere blip on the cosmic scale and likewise on the earth time scale.

Homo erectus has been around about 2 million years which seems like a long time but only a sneeze in the wind compared to the age of the earth. The average lifespan of people living in an industrialized country is just shy of 80 years. For other animals it seems that the smaller they are the shorter their life spans. For example mice only live 3-5 years. Dogs 8-15 years and so on. Their are some exceptions like the tortoise that can exceed 200 years. Interestingly animals larger than humans like horses and elephants only live 20-40 years or less than 1/2 of that of humans. Does our medical knowledge gain us a 50% advantage? Perhaps so, given that the average human lifespan just 50 years ago was less than 50 years and still is in the poorest areas of the world.

This last fact leads to the premise of the show. Apparently our cells are not meant to age. But they do because free radicals disrupt the DNA sequences and the cells no longer know what to do. If this damage could be delayed, reduced or perhaps even reversed lifespans could possibly have no limit.

Now the fun part. What if we could live to be a 1000 or more years old? First off, as mentioned this doesn't mean immortality. We could and would still die from accidents and other non aging events. But a potential life of over 10 times what is conceivable now is intriguing. Social and cultural institutions would change dramatically.

Some interesting questions: Would retirement exist? Does the human pair bond cycle every 20-30 years? Would we become more paranoid about accidental death? Would our impact on the earth become more urgent? BTW 1000 years represents about 30 generations so would the family structure alter? Family reunions would be huge. Would we continue to procreate for these 1000 years? If we could reverse aging, at what "equivalent" age would we select to spend 800-900 years? Imagine having the experience and presumed wisdom of a 200 year old in a 20 year old body?

What would life look like 500 years from now? Cars and autos have been around for less than 100 years. Computers less than 50 years. The internet less than 25 years. Ipods less than 2 years. What technologies are waiting for discovery?

Would genome customizing become available. If one lives 200 years as a 5'10" straight haired blond male could he have his genome changed to live the next 50 years as a 5' 5" curly haired brunette female? How about custom mutations. Once we understand how the DNA sequences work and the potentially ndless combinations that would be available could we purposedly mutate ourselves to any form and function. Recall a mouse genome is within 70-90% of the human genome. So mutating to some enhanced life form seems within reason, in perhaps a Frankenstein kind of way. Or why not be able to leap buildings with a single bound. Birds fly, why not a mutated human. The idea of X-men may not be so far fetched.

Sure would be fun to find out.