A High Level Glance at Life Extension Technologies
From Wired: "Over the past decade, the main areas of research - brain emulation, regenerative medicine and cryonics - have gradually been departing the realms of science fiction and making a name for themselves in scientific journals. Back in 2009, when Avatar suggested that people could one day upload their brain to an invincible body-double, it seemed like something only James Cameron could dream up. Then a student in Israel controlled a robot with his mind from 2,000km away. In 2009 Aubrey de Grey announced - to more than a few raised eyebrows - that the first person to live to 1,000 thanks to regenerative medicine was probably already alive - and by 2012 a four-year old became the first person to receive a life-saving blood vessel made from her own cells. And around about the same time the horrendous 1997 film Batman & Robin painted cryonics as a field best reserved for psychotic villains, Gregory Fahy and William Rall announced the development of the first cryoprotectant able to vitrify the human body slowly enough that ice crystals don't form and cause tissue damage. ... The 1,000 year life span [Aubrey de Grey] is predicting will be the norm is explained by a straightforward calculation: 'we just look at how often people in the industrialised world die today of causes that are not related to ageing -- if you get to the age of 26, your chances of not getting to 27 is less than one in a thousand.' And how would the planet look with this evergreen, undying population? de Grey is not too worried about that, and is clearly incredulous that anyone else would be. For one thing, if the age women are choosing to have children is already rapidly on the rise, it stands to reason this trend will continue. Menopause won't be an issue, neither will natural resources - by the time we have to worry about a rapidly-growing population, technology will have advanced to cope with the factors we battle today. It could come down to a future universal equivalent of China's one-child policy, but whatever the solution, de Grey says it is ultimately our obligation to give humanity the choice. 'I want to make the choice whether I want to live to 100 when I'm 99, rather than having that choice progressively removed from me by my declining health.'"
Link: http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-09/08/life-extension?page=all