Can We Really Solve The Ageing Challenge?

As far as ageing is concerned, current research suggests that the human life-limit is somewhere around the 120-150-year-mark. But with the advancements in stem-cell and genetic technology, questions are starting to arise if one could extend this figure. Of course, it is not just about extending the life-span, but also about remaining functional in terms of physical and mental abilities whilst doing so. Supplementary to genetic tech, we’re also experiencing Ghost in the Shell type augmented cyber-human-technology making leaps, with Neurallink being one of the more prominent innovators in this space recently. This article explores the possibilities and potential in terms of ageing-reversing technology and also other forms of life-extension-technology that the future could hold for us.

This essay is supported by Generatebg

What’s going on under the hood?

Cells are the fundamental building blocks of every living organism. The main building block of the cell is DNA or deoxyribonucleic acid, which contains the genetic information to dictate how cells should function, develop and grow. When we’re growing up, our DNA is constantly being turned into RNA (ribonucleic acid), which then instructs the cell on what proteins it should produce. Proteins are then used by cells to build other molecules, such as enzymes and membranes, which in turn allow cells to carry out their various functions wi+thin the body. Some of these functions include cellular communication, metabolism and growth. There’s a lot more intricacy behind how this process works but for our purposes, this level of understanding should suffice.

Why do we age?

DNA can get broken down through certain chemical reactions that take place within our bodies called oxidation reactions. These lead to changes in the structure of our DNA causing it to malfunction, eventually resulting in death of that cell or even an entire organ or part of the body. Oxidation happens naturally over time with age but it can also occur at much faster rates due to external factors such as toxins in our environment. So far, there aren’t any ways to slow down or stop oxidation without affecting other things in the body. Namely, slowing down cellular communication between different parts creates side-effects like increasing cancer risk, etc.

Like all things, it’s worth noting that there are other factors besides oxidation for why we age. The main one being entropy, which is basically natural disorder within our bodies. As we age, cells have a much harder time doing their jobs efficiently due to entropy. However, since the amount of entropy increases over time anyway (refer to the section: “Mathematics gives us hope where Physics lets us down here), this point is moot and doesn’t really help us in slowing down the ageing process any further than oxidation does.

Death

The biggest thing standing between us and living forever is death itself; natural death at least. Death is something that has been with us since day one; it’s not like it’s some new invention by Mother Nature (or God if you prefer). To address the problem of death, we must first understand how it happens in general. Then we can begin to look at ways to prevent its occurrence or even work around it altogether provided that there are no side-effects (like hyper-slow metabolism, for instance) involved.

Death can be traced back to cellular senescence. Senescence is basically an irreversible state where cells stop dividing properly and become useless over time due to too much accumulation of oxidative damage (errors accumulated in a numerical process, in mathematical terms if you will) or other internal problems such as entropy mentioned earlier. This eventually leads to organ failure, and eventually death once enough parts within the body fail due to cellular senescence.

Another aspect of cellular senescence is the telomere theory. This theory says that after a certain number of cell-divisions, DNA replication cannot keep up with cell division. This causes DNA strands within our chromosomes called telomeres to shorten over time. This in turn leads to random malfunctions of cells which eventually lead to whole-body collapse from accumulated damage from said faulty cells.

Anti-ageing Gene-Tech

This leads us to one of the most promising anti-ageing treatments in development, called telomerase therapy. Telomerase is an enzyme that helps maintain the length of our telomeres by acting as a DNA-repair mechanism. It can be used to turn back the clock on cells when they reach their set limit of division before senescence kicks in. By adding more telomerase into our bodies, it allows more division cycles for cells to go through before they become useless. This in turn extends how long we live with a good quality of life. Telomerase therapy appears to work in prolonging life, but it also decreases quality of life due to how low your body’s metabolism works (unfortunately, no free-lunch here yet). If we are to consider this as a viable option in the future, we should first solve the metabolism-drawback it suffers from.

Anti-ageing Stem-Cell-Tech

This technology represents one of the most recent breakthroughs in anti-ageing tech. Stem-cells are what feature in a fetus under development. A fetus is known to send stem-cells to a wounded mother (more specifically to the wounded part(s)) to help accelerate her recovery. This behaviour and effect of the stem-cells are taken advantage of this method, where multiple stem cell injections are administered to critical parts of the body. The resulting effects seem to reverse / decelerate ageing to a certain point.  However, this technology is very new, and its long-term effects are yet to be studied exhaustively. Furthermore, even considering the promising initial results, the tech is still just in its nascent stages.

Cyborg-Tech

So, what are our other alternatives? Could Neurallink-like technologies help transfer our brain-function into a cyber-vessel like in the movie / series: Ghost in the Shell? In a nutshell, such a hypothetical technology would allow us in the future to continue our existence as a cyber-human-hybrid (a Cyber-Organism or a Cyborg) should our biological bodies fail us. But for that to be possible, we should first solve the problem of digitizing the human soul. We know for a fact from various diseases such as the Alzheimer‘s and other medical conditions that even a slight damage to the human brain alters the personality and the so-called ‘soul’. So, there’s quite some way to go here, but the tech is advancing rapidly.

Cryo-Sleep

As one of the last stops, we have cryopreservation, which isn’t exactly anti-ageing. The catch here is that anyone going through such an experience successfully would be time-warped into the future. It’s not really age-reversal, but rather time-skipping. This kind of technology is already being successfully employed to preserve plant and animal species in fear of global disasters. It is also used in human sperm-banks where people store their ‘seeds’ at a convenient time (for example when they are younger) so that they can make use of them to fertilize eggs later (human male sperms tend to lose quality over the life duration of the typical male). While not the perfect solution, this tech represents a solid option, and research and development continue in this field to push boundaries.

Conclusion

We’ve just seen what goes on under the hood in terms of ageing, and what challenges we face in reversing or hindering ageing. We’ve also looked at some of the most prominent anti-ageing tech we have. Based on all we know so far, if one were to ask me the question, “Can ageing be stopped?”, I am inclined to answer “Yes!” It may take some time for humanity to get there, but I have faith in human ingenuity and its innovative drive to get there.

On that optimistic note, I hope you found this article interesting and useful. If you’d like to get notified when interesting content gets published here, consider subscribing.

Further reading that might interest you: Your Health Is Your Biggest Investment.