Life extension

FOR years, wealthy investors — from PayPal’s Peter Thiel to Google’s Sergei Brin — have poured money into technology to extend human life, leading to some exciting recent breakthroughs.

Bodies of mice have been successfully “rejuvenated,” reversing the signs of aging in their tissues, and allowing them to live 30% longer.

Earlier this year, life extension company Altos Labs celebrated the biggest biotechnology launch in history, backed by a $3 billion investment that reportedly included money from Jeff Bezos. Altos is said to be poaching scientists from around the world and paying them $1 million a year.

Juan Carlos Izpisúa Belmonte of Altos labs has said he believes human lifespans could be extended by up to 50 years, either by using genetic therapies or chemical drugs.

Anti-aging medicine will be a discovery on a par with that of antibiotics, says Dr Andrew Steele, author of “Ageless: The New Science of Getting Older Without Getting Old.”

“Aging is responsible for more disease and death than anything else on the planet, two thirds of deaths globally. If we could develop medicines that could slow down and perhaps even partially reverse the aging process, people will not just be living longer, they’ll be healthier and happier,” Steele said.

But experts also warn the technology could lead to overpopulation that damages world economies.

By 2030, one in six people in the world will be 60 or over, according to the World Health Organization, leading countries to struggle with the cost of looking after its elderly population.

Already in Japan, there is a dearth of younger people to care for its elderly citizens, so the country has developed “care robots” to look after its aging populace.

An older population also means we must fundamentally rethink how retirement and pensions work, experts said. “These are actually problems that we desperately need to address anyway, like pension ages have to rise because we’re already seeing an unsustainable burden of older people in lots of countries around the world,” Steele said. The technology could also fuel social division. With much of the research funded by Silicon Valley billionaires, experts are warning against a world where the rich survive and the poor are doomed to die. This year Elon Musk also said he disapproved of the technology, stating, “It would cause asphyxiation of society, because the truth is, most people don’t change their mind. They just die. So if they don’t die, we will be stuck with old ideas and society wouldn’t advance.”