A while back I read a speculation on a science blog that the first person who will live to see their 200th birthday is alive today. They went on to say there's a slim chance that the first person to their 500th birthday is already born. And there's a non-zero chance that the first person to live indefinitely barring accident is already born, and if he or she is not, they will be soon enough.
This week we apparently took the first step towards making this happen, as scientists achieve a partial reversal of ageing in mice. This breakthrough should have other benefits long before age reversing treatments - being able to preserve the lengths of telomeres should help solve some of the biggest problems in cloning technology where, as far as I understand it, some of the most common genetic problems clones have are due to their already shortened telomeres inherited from their DNA donor.
Even if they get this treatment perfected to the point where they can use it on humans, it doesn't mean longer lives but it hopefully will mean better lives. But it's undoubtedly a strong step forward in understanding an manipulating ageing. And maybe the first person to live forever isn't here yet, but I don't doubt they're not far off.
I have to ask myself if I'd want to live 500 years, or a 1000. Or forever. I don't doubt that at some point I'd get sick of it all, and the last thing this world needs is us all hanging around here forever. But I can't say I don't like the idea of living to see where the human races goes over the next 1000 years given how far we've come in the last millennium.
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