Longevity Options

is anyone here actively seeking longevity or any kind of psuedo-physical immortality? if anyone is, im curious as to what you may have found out about it or what is useful.

I heard fasting extends your life. Your body learns naturally how to conserve energy and your metabolism slows, which means your cells divide slower and you age slower.

It is a pity that life is so short. I do not agree with the too-popular sentiment that we ought to make way for new generations, or that we become over-burdened by unhappy memories. Plenty of fine enterprises and promising careers are cut short by injury and disease, but aside from these we are severely limited by aging. As the Psalm says, we gain nothing more by living to 80 years instead of 70 except sorrow and toil, but even this is too short.

The most promising anti-aging work being done in the medical industry is also focused on disease remedies, and that is the field of regenerative medicine, otherwise known as "tissue cloning." This technology exists, though it has been unfortunately overshadowed by the absurdity of whole organism cloning and the indefensible outcry against stem cell research. The same people who permit legal abortions also ban stem cell research... go figure. At any rate, the idea is that defective tissues are replaced using cloned healthy cells derived from the same organism, so that you could remain in tip-top condition indefinitely.

Nanotechnology has vastly increased the possibilities of tissue cloning, though again the research is stymied by overwhelming public misunderstanding. In these subjects there is solid research being conducted by the top minds in the field and in the best facilities possible. Why is it never given due publicity? I don't know, but the octogenarian PhD who declared "there is no longer any reason to die of old age" was murdered the very next day.

Those who like sane and rational answers can stop reading now.

My own investigations by occult means have nothing whatsoever to do with the scientific ideas above (which are probably a much better bet for longevity), but indicate that it is possible to form a symbiotic relationship with microorganisms and thereby extend life. These were not specifically identified, but it appears to be a species of diatom or crystalline algae (found in Wyoming and elsewhere) that becomes parasitic. These are supposed to exist in water and soil, form similar relationships with plants and tree roots, and may have some bearing on the concept of Ponce DeLeon's mythic fountain. Maybe someday I'll go to Wyoming and try to produce 20 year old hamsters.

I remember a story about a man in China who was documented to have lived 300 years, and attributed it to his herb garden. The Chinese government moved him from the area to have him assist in herbal concoctions, whereupon he died despite an identical diet of identical herbs. I suggest that his secret was not the herbs, but (unknown to him) these crystalline parasites in the water which he had given to those herbs.

I heard fasting extends your life. Your body learns naturally how to conserve energy and your metabolism slows, which means your cells divide slower and you age slower.

Science seems to disagree.

It is a pity that life is so short. I do not agree with the too-popular sentiment that we ought to make way for new generations, or that we become over-burdened by unhappy memories. Plenty of fine enterprises and promising careers are cut short by injury and disease, but aside from these we are severely limited by aging. As the Psalm says, we gain nothing more by living to 80 years instead of 70 except sorrow and toil, but even this is too short.

The most promising anti-aging work being done in the medical industry is also focused on disease remedies, and that is the field of regenerative medicine, otherwise known as "tissue cloning." This technology exists, though it has been unfortunately overshadowed by the absurdity of whole organism cloning and the indefensible outcry against stem cell research. The same people who permit legal abortions also ban stem cell research... go figure. At any rate, the idea is that defective tissues are replaced using cloned healthy cells derived from the same organism, so that you could remain in tip-top condition indefinitely.

Nanotechnology has vastly increased the possibilities of tissue cloning, though again the research is stymied by overwhelming public misunderstanding. In these subjects there is solid research being conducted by the top minds in the field and in the best facilities possible. Why is it never given due publicity? I don't know, but the octogenarian PhD who declared "there is no longer any reason to die of old age" was murdered the very next day.

Those who like sane and rational answers can stop reading now.

My own investigations by occult means have nothing whatsoever to do with the scientific ideas above (which are probably a much better bet for longevity), but indicate that it is possible to form a symbiotic relationship with microorganisms and thereby extend life. These were not specifically identified, but it appears to be a species of diatom or crystalline algae (found in Wyoming and elsewhere) that becomes parasitic. These are supposed to exist in water and soil, form similar relationships with plants and tree roots, and may have some bearing on the concept of Ponce DeLeon's mythic fountain. Maybe someday I'll go to Wyoming and try to produce 20 year old hamsters.

I remember a story about a man in China who was documented to have lived 300 years, and attributed it to his herb garden. The Chinese government moved him from the area to have him assist in herbal concoctions, whereupon he died despite an identical diet of identical herbs. I suggest that his secret was not the herbs, but (unknown to him) these crystalline parasites in the water which he had given to those herbs.

The comment about the researcher dieing doesn't surprise me in the least. But at the same time immortality could/ and almost definitely would have drastically negative consequences on this, already over populated, world. This is from a biological standpoint of course.

But at the same time immortality could/ and almost definitely would have drastically negative consequences on this, already over populated, world. This is from a biological standpoint of course.

I'm all in favor of immortality, but have no great desire to extend that privilege to everyone. If I found a proven solution to the aging problem, you can bet I'd tell people, but wouldn't be terribly disappointed when nobody listens.

Please explain what you mean about the "biological standpoint." I don't see any inherent biological problems resulting from exessively long life, other than perhaps a need to revive the immune system periodically to acclimate the body to new diseases.

Overpopulation is a politically-correct way to defend greed or laziness. There are more than enough of necessary resources to meet the needs of hundreds of times the current number of planetary occupants, and enough room too. The dilemmas ascribed to overpopulation amount to problems in resource distribution and occasionally controlled scarcity to retain the value of those resources.

Having dipped into the restaurant business, I can say with absolute certainty that there is an enormous and terrible food waste in every civilized nation. For example, a sandwich shop needs to present "fresh sandwich ingredients" to every customer, yet rarely does everything in stock get sold. You are left with waste that cannot be legally sold or redistributed, and unless you want a massive legal liability you cannot even give it away for free. Yet you cannot serve old food, so you toss it and buy new food stock. You can't lower prices because you are only going to get so-much business in a day and you have expenses to meet. The problem is even worse for grocery stores, especially in the vegetabe departments. What could have fed thousands of people instead feeds dozens.

The same sort of problem exists for other resources and necessities. There is plenty to go around, and to spare, but it is not economically feasible to get the stuff to the people who need it. The problems of overpopulation are political problems, not biological problems. If immortality were limited to those daring enough to eat pond scum or some weird herb, it isn't even a political problem, and there isn't much of an argument against its negative consequences except perhaps for the individual.

Remember also that the ordinary person has at least 20 years of reproductive possibility, yet hardly anyone has more than a handful of children. There are a few exceptions, but these do not offset even local populations significantly. I cannot imagine that a person would suddenly want to have hundreds of children running around. Women produce a limited number of eggs, and it is likely that living longer would not produce more egg cells. If everyone were to become suddenly immortal, you'd probably end up with a society where no one is able to have more children at all after 50 years or so, which to me is a far worse prediction than overpopulation.