this new genome research

[Kinky Tom]

so we keep discovering all sorts of useful information about the human body.  if we can understand the new findings properly then we'll be able to cure all sorts of illnesses etc.

now the reason i have started a thread was the hope to raise a discussion about how far we go to be able to preserve life and to make life as active as possible...

the further we go the more we'll extend the average life expectancy and as such we'll also end up increasing the population of the world.

will the 'world' react and hit us with some sort of plague (unlikely, just a thought) or will we exhaust all our resources and fuck ourselves over this way?

on a personal level we all want our loved ones to be with us as long as possible but perhaps on a more global level we shouldn't really be looking for all the answers?

i don't really have an answer but watching the news just now i thought i'd see what people thought.

what if we cure cancer? where will that leave us?

[Flashheart]

It's conceivable that our grandchildren could have access to technology and medical facilities that could make them pretty much immortal. No exaggeration. If not them, then perhaps a generation or two later.

Whenever it happens the biggest challenge will be a moral one because until we find a new planet to settle, we will have to limit our population. Some people, many people, will have to be allowed to die when they could be allowed to live normal and happy lives instead.

Who gets to die and who gets to live?

[Barry Scott]

Aids is tantamount to incurable and I recall reading how we'll run out of much of our current food and need to eat insects before long.

Regardless, I personally believe we'll destroy ourselves soon enough anyway!

[Kinky Tom]

but aids is now also well understood and we can do all sorts to prevent contacting it, we may never be able to cure it but we can come close (don't say it) to making sure as many people as possible don't catch it in the first place

[Flashheart]

Aids is tantamount to incurable

Evolution is fighting back.

There are women Africa that are immune to HIV. Just a freak of nature, a deformity. There's likely countless other women on the planet that have similar deformities that HIV doesn't like only because they are not on the job, we don't get to find out about them.

These deformities get passed down to offspring and hey presto, HIV is beaten. Evolution in action, you can find Richard Dawkins talking about it on YouTube as well. 

[AldbourneRed]

In a world of significantly extended life expectancy some very serious questions would need to be asked about the rate at which we, as a species, are reproducing.

This might take the form of a limit on the number of children per family, we're already aware of the tragic consequences that can lead to. Alternatively some sort of licence to have children, only granted to a proportion of the population, could be used.

Either way it would be a very serious situation to find ourselves in.

[Batch]

Who gets to die and who gets to live?

Everyone could wear a bracelet, when it turns black at age 30 you have to die. Except if your name is Logan, then you run.

[Nomoreheroes]

I would like to run with a young Jenny Agutter!

[nevillew]

I've done some research on this. I have four in my garden, two with fishing rods.

[nevillew]

Compulsory euthanasia would be on the cards when populations reach crisis levels.

Someone would have to pick a date to announce that, from that point, lifespan is say 70 years. At least everyone knows the score before deciding to start a family from that point.

This might be a tad controversial....

[Bogus Dave]

Scientists believe that the first human being who will live 150 years has already been born.

I believe I am that human being

[@MacPhlea]

but aids is now also well understood and we can do all sorts to prevent contacting it, we may never be able to cure it but we can come close (don't say it) to making sure as many people as possible don't catch it in the first place

Pharmaceutical companies don't want to find a cure - there is no money to be made from cures - far more profitable to create treatments...

I'll give you an example (and there are a few I have seen over the years)... We did some development work for a pharma company who claimed to have a treatment for sufferers of dust mite allergy. They projected the sales to far exceed the volume of anything we had previously manufactured and would have helped billions of sufferers around the world.  They did the clinical trials and found that rather than treat the condition it actually cured it - this meant that each patient would only ever require one 'treatment' rather than a regular prescription.  Now you'd have thought they would still have gone ahead and manufactured the cure but no, they pulled it - not enough long term profit

[Cookie]

Extending life expentency may be necessary to reverse the current demographic trends in the developed world. Many nations are experiencing population decline as birth rates drop and this impacts on a nation's growth and development. Extending/improving the lives of people will enable everyone to work and contribute that bit more for a bit longer to their society.

But, the biggest threat to sustaining the current world population has to be climate change. a 3 degree change will have catastrohpic affects on many marginal ecosystems. Of course the poorest people will suffer and it won't cause much of a problem for at least another 50-100 years but whilst the rich will focus on extending their lives by altering their genome many of the world's poorest people will struggle to fulfill even their basic needs to sustain life.

[walcot red]

Everyone could wear a bracelet, when it turns black at age 30 you have to die. Except if your name is Logan, then you run.

Then process the people into a form of food, pass the soylent green please

[pauld]

You've spelled gnome wrong.