Banshee,
No, my priorities are not mixed up, a lot of humans are dying from starvation. Never heard of Africa??
You missed my point. I don’t disagree that many people die of starvation, but the number is insignificant when compared with the number of people who die due to aging related disease.
But starvation is not an issue for science; that is both an economic and political issue. There is plenty of wealth and food around to prevent anyone starving, or at least the means to produce adequate food, so I suggest you take that up in the politics forum.
And yes, I know there is a Earth-bound body and a Cosmic body. Call it belief if you want to. I don't like the word 'belief', too much of a religion.
To know means to have knowledge and knowledge usually comes by way of evidence – uhh whatever, wrong forum for that. The point is made that you think you have an essence that survives bodily death. It is that perspective that seems to have persuaded you to have an opposition to anti-aging research, would you agree?
But there are more urgent needs to solve the problem of aging rather than just allowing people to live forever. And again this is both social and economic, but has a scientific solution.
In many parts of the world, the wealthiest for the moment, although it looks like the rest of the world will follow shortly, the proportion of elderly people is increasing compared to young people. This is creating a problem that will become a major issue in a few years time. It is the younger people who create the wealth, i.e. they are the workers who produce the goods, which are sold, etc, and which generate an active economy. If the number of workers decrease and the number of elderly increase, then where is the wealth going to come from to support the elderly?
Many elderly may have provided good pensions for themselves, but most do not do that. But the real issue is that as people age they succumb to age related diseases. IOW words as you age your body’s ability to fight off infections decreases rapidly. This puts an increasing burden on the medical services that have to be funded somehow.
The USA and most countries in Europe that have active welfare schemes know they are facing a crisis in a few years time.
Up until the mid forties the concept of retirement didn’t really exist. People would work until they died. But modern medicine had made it possible for people to live longer and the average lifespan was creeping into the 50s and 60s. People were living longer and some were saving enough so that they could stop work and live a life of leisure. Most western countries then adopted the concept of retirement and the idea of pensions, mostly state funded.
This seemed like a good idea and was politically popular. But what age to set for retirement? At that time the average life-span was 63, so a retirement age of 65 was set. The expectation was that not many would live past 63 so pension schemes could be very easily financed.
Unfortunately science has continued to help people live longer. The average now for males is around 73 and 79 for females. But it isn’t just a few exceptions but the bulk of people.
The crisis will come in the provision of medical services and the means to finance that.
One obvious solution might be to make people work longer, perhaps set a retirement expectation at 75 instead of 65, and there are trends that indicate that is starting to happen. But while people are living longer they are also experiencing many more age related diseases that will prevent many of them from working. And unfortunately science is finding ways for people to live longer but not particularly with a good quality of life.
The solution to both the economic and the quality of life issue is to find ways to prevent the aging process. If people stay effectively young, then they can work longer if they wish, the drain on the medical services will dramatically subside, and the overall quality of life will dramatically improve.
The next problem will be overpopulation and how to control that. And that I hope will provoke more research into space exploration. There is a massive universe out there and we have not begun to explore it yet. It is time.
So anti-aging research is vital for economic, and political stability, as well for the quality of life for all humans. I heard a few years ago that the US government spends more on anti-aging research than they do on defense.
Cris
