how do you combat loneliness and make friends at 80, 90, 100, and beyond, esp if longtime friends are gone? they seem to have figured out this rather difficult challenge reasonably well (all women, btw. think we men are worse at this for some reason).
Steve James wrote:it's only marginally possible to delay genetic inevitabilities through exercise and nutrition.
predictions are "just" connecting data points to "draw a line (probably a curve)" and then kind of say "if that continues, the next data points would probably end up here, here, and here". for "science" and sometimes even "investing", it seems to work ok. but with anything with human behavior and more variables that cannot be isolated, and of course, for "science fiction" (or venture investing based on "the next big thing" idea), you can't fully "do the math". you just try hard to make reasonable assumptions. kurzweil, sam altman, gates, etc. all do that, regardless of whether anyone thinks they do a good job. of course, they do have a track record and actual knowledge of the data points they're leaping from and using for their plans. it's different from the crazy homeless guy on the corner with the cardboard sign saying "the end is near". but in any case, someone may as well be the conversation starter.
anyway, none of that really matters for the purposes of OTT convos. we can pretend for a moment that we're all quite informed and can extrapolate from the data points ourselves as we tend to do with taijiquan (where everyone here talks as if he is a world leading expert of the field/art). I don't even understand the epigenetic reboot thing, but that's probably one of the big "data points". https://newatlas.com/biology/epigenetic ... -lifespan/
basically 1. first they restored vision in mice 2. they restored "biomarkers" of aging in mice. to stay more grounded (without understanding the science), I would say it's not actually about "human immortality" (that's a prediction and it's fun to talk about the implications there more, though). cells that aren't doing so well can do better. various diseases may be more likely to be prevented or treated or reversed. but we don't have to be a futurist to immediately speculate a little beyond that. the key assumptions underlying the speculation are probably:
1. healthspans and lifespans have already been on an upward trend (excluding covid).
2. more knowledge and effective technology to help is rapidly emerging at a faster rate.
3. "intelligence" is emerging that is growing much faster than human intelligence. this is in itself a prediction as well, but it is also observed data points.
4. the currently known limit of human lifespan is about 120. but as the mechanisms that cause the "finite state" are more understood (and can be manipulated), the known finite limit may go beyond what we currently know.
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