April Smith makes a good point:
I honestly hope that mine is the last generation that would consider doing [calorie restriction (CR)] for life-extension purposes. That's because I hope that biotech will be developed that will actually reverse aging, not just slow it down a little. Even if CR were to get us to 120 (which I think is overly optimistic, btw), I would rather see therapies developed that will get us more than that, and will be available to people outside of that small subset of people willing to make the sacrifices that hardcore CR entails.
If medical science is pushed forward as fast as we'd like, the folk that presently gather to encourage calorie restriction research and practice calorie restriction for its health and longevity benefits will likely form the first and last generation of that community.
There will still be forward-looking people eager to seize better health and a longer, healthier life in the future - but they will have far better tools at their disposal. I imagine that the mindset informing calorie restriction practitioners today is the very same that will generate eager open source biotechnologists tomorrow, earnest folk who will collaborate to build better, cheaper and more effective healthy life extension technologies.
Food for thought; all things change, and change means progress.
Technorati tags: calorie restriction, life extension