Life is way too short and therefore one of my main life goals is to increase the odds in radically extending it. One of many steps in that direction is to set up strategies on how to achieve this. So I started to sketch on it and came up with roughly 5 potential strategies to radically extend life.
I view the first strategy as the best case scenario but I think the success potential around this strategy for me is quite low. My guess is that I’m a bit too old (currently 46 years) to experience safe and well developed interventions that will reverse aging. I think I may witness the initial revolutionary discoveries of these interventions but it will take time before they are safe and that I feel comfortable in testing them out. Maybe the really dedicated longevity biohacker Bryan Johnson or the young biohacker Siim Land will have a higher success potential with this strategy.
I think the second strategy has currently the highest success potential for me. Even if slow aging interventions are unknown territories I feel quite comfortable in practicing the ones I have chosen. Like for example Rapamycin. But I think it’s important to keep in mind that these interventions can backfire and in the worst case lead to accelerated aging instead of slowed aging. So self-experimenting with these interventions is definitely not for everyone and should always be done under supervision of a physician. The thing I personally like with this strategy is that I postpone the cryopreservation so it will be a more well-developed technique when I will need it. I also think this strategy gives a tiny chance that it may be aligned with strategy 1 and by that I can skip the step of cryopreservation. (Cryopreservation = is a technique of preserving the human body at extremely low temperatures to potentially revive it in the future. Interesting research is put into this area.)
The third strategy is about trying to optimize basic lifestyle interventions such as exercise, diet, sleep, stress management, mental health etc. The risk of things backfiring here is quite low. But personally I think the risk is a bit higher when it comes to cryopreservation. My view is that every year cryopreservation can be postponed the more well-developed this technique will be and by that the success potential increases.
The fourth strategy is about just living a standard life and not caring so much about interventions. Even if this is not an option for me I wanted to lift this as a potential path even if it’s not the optimal one.
The last strategy is about doing things that increase the risk of shortening the lifespan. Things like smoking, high alcohol consumption, bad diet, bad sleep, bad habits, high stress levels, isolation etc. I like to highlight this strategy because no one is perfect but this strategy is a reminder for me to try to minimize these bad things in life.
All feedback is welcome as always! Even the tough one. Have I missed something that could improve the overall strategies even more?
Thanks as always for the great infographic! I personally don’t have much faith in cryopreservation because it relies on so many technical unknowns and a far future civilization that wants to reanimate the dead, hopefully for positive reasons.
Big thanks! Let’s see what other interventions that may come up instead of cryo but I’m open to many things as long as they can be proved to be safe and work. Full body replacement is also one interesting potential intervention but before that intervention gets well-developed I don’t think I will be alive. Do you have any intervention that you keep an extra eye on?
Personally I have never really been that enthusiastic about cryo. It may be possible to modify the human metabolism to move in the direction of a form of temporary hibernation, but going through the freezing point of water looks to be too much of a challenge.
Are there any other cutting-edge intervention that you think is more promising? I see cryo as plan B if plan A fails and no cutting-edge intervention are discovered or enough well-developed when I need it.
As I have said I think the main mechanism(s) that causes aging are about mitochondrial inefficiency (caused by heteroplasmy in the main) and partially associated acetyl-CoA levels. I also think there are a number of interventions to improve this which is what I am working on.
I cannot myself think it worth going through the cryo process. I don’t think it would be like going to sleep and waking up feeling refreshed. I am not myself sure I would wish to undergo such a process.
As far as I am personally concerned with the interventions I have used over the past few years I have substantially improved my quality of life. I intend to keep going with this approach.
You’re on an airplane when you hear a loud sound and things start violently shaking. A minute later, the captain comes on the speaker and says:
There’s been an explosion in the engine, and the plane is going to crash in 15 minutes. There’s no chance of survival. There is a potential way out—the plane happens to be transferring a shipment of parachutes, and anyone who would like to use one to escape the plane may do so. But I must warn you—the parachutes are experimental and completely untested, with no guarantee to work. We also have no idea what the terrain will be like down below. Please line up in the aisle if you’d like a parachute, and the flight attendants will give you one, show you how to use it and usher you to the emergency exit where you can jump. Those who choose not to take that option, please remain in your seat—this will be over soon, and you will feel no pain.
The theory is that if frozen a creature may be restored some time in the future and whilst being frozen no changes occur. However, apart from the fact that there is relatively little security in being kept frozen, it strikes me that so much damage occurs in the process of being frozen that it would be unlikely that anyone would wish to come out of the process in an sentient state.
It may be that we can work out how to hibernate. Going beyond that, however, strikes me as really difficult.
It would be a cold day in hell that I would consider cryopreservation, and I mean really cold! At this point, I’m very concerned about what the state of the world will be in 5 years - I’m going to live for today…and hope for tomorrow. Cold therapy, maybe, but I’m not jumping into any freezer that I can’t jump out of.
And @Neo given any option other than certain death is a no-brainer…I’ll jump out of the plane with just a parasol.
In that case I’d use the parachute. Cryonics is like adding that you must donate your financial assets not to your family but to the parachute company no matter what happens.
I just skimmed through it…probably more than I wanted to know about cryonics (I thought it was more like suspended animation). And the question about when you are actually dead is troubling. “he’s dead, Jim” “Dammit Jim, I’m a doctor…not a corpse revivor!”
The technology that I think is more practical and not unlikely if I live 30 more years, is this (from the article you posted). “a hypothetical future technology called “whole brain emulation,” where an entire brain structure can be uploaded to a computer with such perfect accuracy that everything about the person is intact and alive in a virtual world.”
The thoughts and personality in my brain are what matter. At my age, I could use a better body. And I’m a little nervous about freezing my head - I’m afraid that @AnUser might get ahold of it.
P.S. Cryonics also reminds me of one of my favorite movies…" They Saved Hitler’s Brain" so I wouldn’t want my head to end up in the freezer next to his.
