Its an inevitable fact of life: Everyone dies.
More recent data, however, has suggested that this gravy train is grinding to a crawl.
Well, forever is a very long time, so I cant answer this using an indefinite time frame.
We asked the experts if the average human lifespan will ever reach the century mark.© Olena Malik via Getty
In fact, its unlikely for most people alive today.
Why am I so confident in this answer?
The demographic metric of life expectancy is based on death rates at all ages.
The first revolution in longevity occurred because public health saved the young from dying from communicable diseases.
But now the currently immutable force of biological aging gets in the way.
The real question here is what might the future bring?
Lets get one issue addressed immediately.
The answer is a definitive no!
The same holds true for life expectancy.
Would they just be sick for another 40 years, for instancewhich wouldnt sound so good.
But we found the opposite; we found that their longevity and their health went together.
They would get diseases between 30 and 50 years after other people got diseases.
And its not only that theyre living healthy longer, theres a contraction of morbidity.
About 30% of them die without taking any drugs and without having any disease.
So the idea that humans have the capacity to be healthy for 100 yearsare there people like that?
These authors are arguing against other demographers who have said: Hey, look at the last 150 years.
Life expectancy has increased linearly, without stop, in a straight line.
Every 10 years, we just live 10 years longer, right?
And Jay Olshansky has said, Well, is there a roof?
Because if theres a roof, then were not going to increase linearly forever.
And look, I think theres a roof.
But the people in my study seem to have longevity genes that allow them to do that.
Would the next stage then be to increase that roof?
Is it possible in the future?
The answer is probably, I think so.
Is it going to be in my lifetime?
I dont think so.
So Im not saying that this limit wouldnt be broken, Im saying something totally else.
How can we live into our 90s or 100s without being sick?
That, I think, is more than possible.
The title of the [Nature Aging] paper is about radical life extension.
For me, radical life extension is over the age of 150.
No, because I think theres a roof.
But can we live longer and better?
The future of human longevity depends entirely on the future of AI.
There are two main contributors to advances in longevity: environmental and biomedical.
Major advancements in public health and standard of living have driven past gains in average adult life expectancy.
An instructive example comes from physics.
Plus, the number of human-made problems that have the potential to reduce human longevity is increasing.
But then some key questions arise.
Were not merging as individuals, or even in human form.
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