On Longevity
And how can we approach it
This essay is one of 7 essays for The Tech Progressive Writing Challenge. Check out build_ to join the conversation.
If you ask ten people today, probably nine out of ten (if not everyone) will tell you that they would like to live forever. The idea of eternal life and longevity is appealing. The concept of living a long, healthy, and happy life seems like a god-given gift. But is this feasible? Will everyone have the opportunity to access the latest supplements, be exposed to the latest scientific discoveries that will promote their lifespan, or live in a place that will promote longevity as a whole?
An army of scientists, technologists, researchers, and even authors are trying to learn more about longevity and find ways to promote it. Scientist David Sinclair in his book Lifespan, states that aging is a disease. He argues that we must move away from treating age-related diseases and focus on their root. Reclassifying aging as a disease is a critical first step in this shift in approach.
Along with Sinclair, there is an expanding movement of people stating that we’re wasting money and time on what he calls “whack-a-mole” medicine. We are pursuing cures for individual diseases like cancer, heart disease, and Alzheimer’s, but these don’t get at the real root of the problem: aging. Stopping the progression of one disease doesn’t make it any less likely that a person will die of another. While lifespans have increased because of this approach, increases in health span haven’t kept pace. Failure to define aging as a disease is also stunting research funding to understand the biology of aging. By defining aging as a disease, laboratories and companies would grow, and innovation and competition would flourish as labs and startups compete for funding.
Finally, we should also understand that longevity is going to be affected by rising temperatures and the quality of the air we breathe, let alone any existential threats to humanity because of global warming. The quest for a longer, happier, and healthier life is an equation with multiple variables that we need to evaluate. From a builder's standpoint, we have to think from the first principles and tackle the individual challenges accordingly. From an investor's standpoint, we need to focus our efforts on the themes of biotechnology and climate change now and not later because here is a massive opportunity of a lifetime to change lives and produce returns.