Anti-Aging Research: Prolonging Life or Overpopulation?

[wasteofo2]

I've read/watched a lot about anti-aging research over the past year, and while the topic is very interesting, I still can't understand why people are researching it. As far as I know, bassically every place in the world has a growing human population besides Africa and perhaps China (and only because of the 1 child policy). Even with AIDS, cancer, terrorism, all sorts of various diseases, global warming, the hole in the ozone layer pollution etc. the world's human population is still growing, and in most places, average life spans are increasing. Yet these scientists are still trying to find ways to make poeple live longer and longer and longer.

Of course when you look at it from an individual perspective, you might want your beloved parents to live healthy lives to 160 years old, but imagine a society with people living for that long, it would be so ridiculously over-crowded. Just to keep the economy going the retirement age would keep having to be raised, social security would either fail or take ridiculous sums of money from workers, there'd be huge amounts of trash, more and more and more cities would have to be built, oh god it would all go to hell.

Bassically, what I'm saying is, let old people die.

 

[plus]

I've read/watched a lot about anti-aging research over the past year, and while the topic is very interesting, I still can't understand why people are researching it. As far as I know, bassically every place in the world has a growing human population besides Africa and perhaps China (and only because of the 1 child policy). Even with AIDS, cancer, terrorism, all sorts of various diseases, global warming, the hole in the ozone layer pollution etc. the world's human population is still growing, and in most places, average life spans are increasing. Yet these scientists are still trying to find ways to make poeple live longer and longer and longer.

Of course when you look at it from an individual perspective, you might want your beloved parents to live healthy lives to 160 years old, but imagine a society with people living for that long, it would be so ridiculously over-crowded. Just to keep the economy going the retirement age would keep having to be raised, social security would either fail or take ridiculous sums of money from workers, there'd be huge amounts of trash, more and more and more cities would have to be built, oh god it would all go to hell.

Bassically, what I'm saying is, let old people die.

Africa is undergoing a huge population explosion. The population of white Europeans is decreasing due to low birthrates, so some of your comments are inaccurate.

The idea is not to keep people in the state of vegatables, but to prolong the period of productive, healthy life.

 

[wasteofo2]

Africa is undergoing a huge population explosion. The population of white Europeans is decreasing due to low birthrates, so some of your comments are inaccurate.

The idea is not to keep people in the state of vegatables, but to prolong the period of productive, healthy life.

I thought that with all the AIDS in africa, a lot of the poor (mostly native african) people are dying off. But damn, Africa is just a ****hole and if their population is still growing...

I realize it's to keep people active longer, living healthy, better and longer lives. Human populations are still growing, more people are being born than are dying, and if you prolong death (even if life is good), you're still going to lead to massive over-crowding. Especially if people have productive, healthy elderly years, retirement need to be pushed back.

 

[Monique]

Africa is undergoing a huge population explosion. The population of white Europeans is decreasing due to low birthrates, so some of your comments are inaccurate.

How do you know the population growth in Africa is explosive? If I look up the population growth rate of S. Africa, it is -0.25% (2004 est.).. but the country is probably one of the most hard-hit by HIV infections. Still, a lot of kids might be born in Africa, but most of them don't live very long lives..

I agree that extending lifespan is complicated by a number of factors, but with the outcome of anti-aging research more mundane diseases can be tackled too.. like heart attacks or stroke (if you know how to keep your bloodvessels young). Basically it is the obligation of researchers to understand how we age and how that information can be used to improve quality of life.

The knowledge should be applied in a commonsensical manner. Like, there are situations where benefits don't outweight the drawbacks. Liver transplatations aren't going to be performed when there is no clear advantage for doing so.