Jump to content
Join the Unexplained Mysteries community today! It's free and setting up an account only takes a moment.
- Sign In or Create Account -

Humans 'will live to age of 150'


Talon

Recommended Posts

Humans 'will live to age of 150'

Some human beings alive today will live to the age of 150, a prominent researcher has claimed.

Steven Austad, of the University Of Texas Health Science Center, told BBC World Service's Discovery programme that life span for a human being may be much longer than most people have considered possible.

And he said that he was virtually certain some children alive now would live to the year 2150.

"The evolutionary picture of the human being is quite an interesting one, because what we've managed to do is create an environment for ourselves that is much safer than anything we've lived in before," he explained.

"So even in the absence of medical advances, with just evolutionary change, in the foreseeable future one would expect humans to age at a slower and slower and slower rate."

Life expectancy

In the industrialised world, more and more people are living even into their 90s and 100s - and there is no sign yet of the trend levelling off.

It is this that is causing, for example, fears of pension crises in many Western countries.

But it is also evident than in some pre-industrial societies around the globe today, there are people who are surviving into their 70s and 80s, despite a lack of, for example, readily available medicines.

Dr Austad's prediction relates in part to research designed to understand how long human beings would actually live for if left in the natural world.

Jim Carey, a biodemographer from the University of California at Davis, analysed the relative body and brain sizes of a range of mammals and found that on our own, it would be likely we would die at between 30 and 40 years old.

The fact that we do not is down to two factors: our brain size and our sociality - the ability to specialise and act together.

Dr Carey explained that the brain, being the instrument of social behaviour, is the key.

"We would estimate that humans would live for 30-40 years just based on size," he said.

"But sociality - and more specifically brain size - comes into this, and brain size and sociality are also related.

"So when you factor in the brain size on this, then you get an estimate of 70-90 years for the human life span."

Winning bet

Dr Carey explained that in the natural world, it has been observed that solitary wasps have a life span of 10 days to two weeks - but advanced, social wasps can live for two to three years.

In other advanced social groups of insects, such as termites and ants, the Queens can live for two or three decades.

"Once you have helpers, plus a nest, the mortality conditions and risks are a bit different," he added.

"The nest provides protection, but also with helpers, you evolve defensive behaviour. You start specialising so that the mother can be reproductive."

Similarly, lions, which live in social groups, live longer than tigers, which are essentially solitary.

And there is very little evidence of our nomadic human ancestors living into their 40s or 50s.

"We are left with the idea of explaining why we humans live much longer than we should for our body size," Dr Austad said.

"One reasonable guess about why that may be true is that we live in these complex groups that provide us some protection that we wouldn't have if we were out there on our own."

Meanwhile, he added that he was so certain that someone alive today will still be alive in 2150, he had placed a bet on it with a friend.

"It's a bet that I feel I'm so overwhelmingly likely to win, I feel like I've stolen the money from him."

Story from BBC NEWS:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/sci/tech/3761310.stm

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 
  • Replies 18
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

  • AztecInca

    3

  • chico del nacho

    2

  • Dead_Man_Inc

    2

  • girty1600

    1

No, that's real gross.

I'd have to lie in bed with a bucket under my jaw.

IF I HAVE A JAW.

Ugh.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

reminds me of in gulliver's travels, when he got to the land of the immortals. the immortals were very pitiable, their minds gone, unable to do anything other then burden their families.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I`d be happy to live to 150 and beyond, I want to see the future of the human race!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yea, you'd think that it would be nice to live very long and see how the human changes, inventing new things and so on. But at what cost? At the age of 150, you would probably have shrunken in height to about one foot laugh.gif , your rinkles have rinkles, every single part ofyourbody has been replaced with something artificial. Unless someone discovers the fountain of youth, I wouldn't want to live that long.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

150! They probably look like a vegetable thats been in the Sun for too long

post-77-1098607180.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Im only 16(17 in three weeks) so I would still have another 133 years and 3 weeks left, just imagine what technologies, treatments and medications there will be!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

you guys are missing something in the article, it says that we would age slower thus meaning that at 150 we would only look to be about 80 or 90 present day, i would love to live to 150 my self

Link to comment
Share on other sites

you guys are missing something in the article, it says that we would age slower thus meaning that at 150 we would only look to be about 80 or 90 present day, i would love to live to 150 my self

323209[/snapback]

Well, If it ends up being that way, I'd love to live that long as long, as I won't look like this...

you would probably have shrunken in height to about one foot laugh.gif , your rinkles have rinkles, every single part ofyourbody has been replaced with something artificial.
Edited by Dead_Man_Inc
Link to comment
Share on other sites

There is something not in the artice that should be mentioned. As long as there is High Fructose Corn Syrup and partially hydrogenated oils in our food supplies...it won't happen! ...and I don't see any of that changing....at all...except for the few of us who realize the concern whistling2.gif

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Even if I could, I wouldnt want to live to that age because.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

Yeah, imagine how many wars you would see in 150 years.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Heck, I'm 60+ (how much + ain't none of your business) and already there are places aching where I didn't even know I had places...I lose things constantly...tell the same story over and over, ad infintum, ad naseum...Nope no 150 for me! blink.gif

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Maybe the future wont be a place where you want to live for years and years beyond what we do now, yet I so badly want to see what becomes of the human race that I wish to live for many many years. Hopefully they wil have really good therapies, treatments and medication that will make life more comfotable!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't think that I want to live to be 150 years old, 90 or so would be okay with me.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Some years back I was employed by a retirement home in southwest Florida. Prior to working there I used to say I wanted to live to see the Tri-Centenial here in the United States, in the year 2076, It would be just prior to my 115th birthday. I still have this dream except since my expereiences I have revised the dreams some. I only want to live that long if I can still take care of myself, wipe my own backside, feed myself and take care of my own place. If I can't preform the above functions on my own I do not want to still be alive.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

I read somewhere that there are tribes in africa with people living to be between 140 and 150. They don't even start having kids until they're 70 in a lot of them. They live this long because they take in a lot of calcium. I think it was like 1,000,000 mm when its like 10,000 is toxic to us. Obviously we don't consume enough calcium to keep our bodies as healthy as they are.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.