Two Paths to the Future
There are two paths to the future of healthy life extension. In the first path, the technologies we can see clearly ahead of us today are heralded, funded, developed and deployed - the seven modes of aging damage are either validated or extended as a good model for the defeat of aging, and repair and prevention strategies are created for all of them. We'll be able to look back to this time of hectic biotechnological development, and forward to a future that is as long as we care to make it.
The second path is one in which future development of working healthy life extension technologies is assumed but not acclaimed, is treated with only moderate interest, is mismanaged or centralized under government control. If this happens, we'll only be able to look back on what could have been, for we won't have a future - our time will have run out.
For an example of the first path in action, look back at the past thirty years of history of the computer industry, enabler of modern bioinformatics. For the second path, look no further than the past thirty years of the space industry or deep sea exploration. The future is not a given - just because something is possible is no guarantee that it will happen. The difference between the first path and the second path in technological development is in our hands.