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*The text was written in 2014, so some ideas, articles and websites mentioned in the article may be out of date

Aging and Longevity... - where do we stand, where can we go, how fast can we get there, why aren't we there yet, how can we get there, and do we really want to go there?
Here you have an essay about scientific searching for longevity. You can find here some information, some ideas, some philosophical (or semi-philosophical) thoughts, etc..
So let's start with something simple...
People live... people age... people die... People die because of many causes and one of the most influential cause for dying in our time is "time itself". And to be more precise, millions of people "die because of old age". Of course, they don't die just because they are old, but they die because (1) their immunological system doesn't work in later years as good as it worked earlier and people are more prone to illnesses, because (2) their muscles are weaker (for example, heart muscle), because (3) their brains stop giving right commands to the rest of their bodies, etc..
But what if it didn't have to be like that? What if...?
And that's where the questions start... and there's where we start...
So now... once again...

introduction

Let's start with something simple...
People live... people age... people die.
That's what we know right now.
But there is a question regarding that knowledge (or rather - there are some questions).
What does it mean?
How does it happen?
And why does it happen?
What does it mean that we live/age/die?
How do we live/age/die?
And why do we live/age/die?
And scientists from around the world are trying to answer these questions.
But these are not the only questions regarding living/aging/dying. There are others.
Do we have to live / do we have to age / do we have to die (ok, "do we have to live" question is a bit different than others, so let's forget about it for a moment)?
And if we have to die, why do we have to? What's the reason for it? What's the mechanism that makes it so inevitable?
And if we even have to die, can we change anything in our aging process to live longer in better health?
And finally, how can we do that?
And with these questions, we get quite interesting beginning for the great scientific adventure. Because, if there are questions, there might be answers. And it's up to us whether these answers will appear or not, and it's up to us whether it'll happen sooner or later.
So, at the beginning, one might ask - "what we are talking about, when we are talking about aging". And it would be a great question for starters.

where do we stand?

There are different definitions of "aging" phenomenon and there will probably be more of them in the future. There is a lot of data that we have to gain and compute to fully understand aging process and it'll probably take some time till we'll understand it completely, but in the early XXI. century we already know a bit or two about it and there is some kind of consensus in the area.
One of "aging" definitions is expressed, for example, by Lionaki, Markaki and Tavernarakis (2013, p. 413). According to them "ageing is a complex process characterized by the progressive accumulation of damage to molecules, cells, tissues and organs that eventually leads to overall functional decline and increased vulnerability to disease and death". And this definition is quite common among scientists.
So let's stay with this for now and try to think "how does it happen" = "what exactly is that damage? what is getting damaged? and how?"
And actually, Lopez-Otin, Blasco, Partridge, Serrano and Kroemer (2013, p. 1194) tried to answer these questions. In their work, they show what scientists already figured out about this damage accumulation during aging and they explain "nine tentative hallmarks that represent common denominators of aging in different organisms, with special emphasis on mammalian aging. These hallmarks are: genomic instability, telomere attrition, epigenetic alterations, loss of proteostasis, deregulated nutrient sensing, mitochondrial dysfunction, cellular senescence, stem cell exhaustion, and altered intercellular communication."
So, there it is. Now we "know" what happens (I know that it's huge exaggeration, because it's just a beginning and these (genomic instability and others) are just big names for very complicated processes, but let's stay with this - "now we know" - in a way). And we may say that this is the answer to our first questions - "what is aging, how does it happen, why does it hapten" (or at least, it's what we know right now at very basic level - if you want to know more, firstly read their (Lopez-Otin, et al., 2013) paper and you'll know much more).
And with this knowledge and with knowledge about aging, growing every day, scientists may try to answer these other questions: (1) about possibilities for making this aging "less annoying" for humans or even (2) about prolonging human life.
And they do try to answer these other questions. They try to do it from different perspectives. For example, Petralia, Mattson and Yao (2014, p. 67) starts with the knowledge that "there are some animals, plants and fungi that can live for several hundred or even several thousand years, and often show negligible senescence." And having that knowledge, authors wonder "What are the mechanisms underlying great longevity and can we apply such knowledge to enhance the health and longevity of humans?" And they provide great amount of information regarding aging in different species and try to show how humans can use the knowledge about other species in "quest for "immortality"." (Petralia et al., 2014, p. 78)
And it's only one example, but there are plenty of others scientists trying to understand what makes life longer and healthier and there are plenty of scientists trying to find ways to actually make this life longer and healthier, especially in later years, but not only (see: de Grey and Rae, 2007; de Magalhaes, Curado and Church, 2009; de Magalhaes, Finch and Janssens, 2010; de Magalhaes, Wuttke, Wood, Plank and Vora, 2012; Garatachea, Marin and Lucia, 2013; Guarente, 2014; Kenyon, 2010; Lucanic, Lithgow and Alavez, 2013; Moskalev, et al., 2013; Seals and Melov, 2014; Zhavoronkov and Cantor, 2011). And it's just (like they say) a tip of an iceberg...
So let's go further...
but first - here you have info about these interesting articles (and one book) I mentioned above:
de Grey, A., Rae M. (2007). Ending Aging: The Rejuvenation Breakthroughs That Could Reverse Human Aging in Our Lifetime. New York, NY: St. Martin's Press.
de Magalhaes, J.P., Curado, J., and Church, G.M. (2009). Meta-analysis of age-related gene expression profiles identifies common signatures of aging. Bioinformatics 25, 875-881.
de Magalhaes, J.P., Finch, C.E., and Janssens, G. (2010). Next-generation sequencing in aging research: emerging applications, problems, pitfalls and possible solutions. Ageing Research Reviews 9, 315-323.
de Magalhaes, J.P., Wuttke, D., Wood, S.H., Plank, M., and Vora, C. (2012). Genome-environment interactions that modulate aging: powerful targets for drug discovery. Pharmacological Reviews 64, 88-101.
Garatachea, N., Marin, P. J., and Lucia, A. (2013). The ACE DD genotype and D-allele are associated with exceptional longevity: A meta-analysis. Ageing Research Reviews 12, 1079-1087.
Guarente, L. (2014). Aging Research-Where Do We Stand and Where Are We Going? Cell 159, 15-19.
Kenyon, C. J. (2010). The genetics of ageing. Nature 464, 504-512.
Lionaki, E., Markaki, M., and Tavernarakis, N. (2013). Autophagy and ageing: Insights from invertebrate model organisms. Ageing Research Reviews 12, 413-428.
Lopez-Otin, C., Blasco, M. A., Partridge, L., Serrano, M., and Kroemer, G. (2013). The Hallmarks of Aging. Cell 153, 1194-1217.
Lucanic, M., Lithgow, G. J., and Alavez, S. (2013). Pharmacological lifespan extension of invertebrates. Ageing Research Reviews 12, 445-458.
Moskalev, A., Shaposhnikov, M. V., Plyusnina, E. N., Zhavoronkov, A., Budovsky, A., Yanai, H. I Fraifeld, V. E. (2013). The role of DNA damage and repair in aging through the prism of Koch-like criteria. Ageing Research Reviews 12, 661-684.
Petralia, R. S., Mattson, M. P., and Yao, P. J. (2014). Aging and longevity in the simplest animals and the quest for immortality. Ageing Research Reviews 16, 66-82.
Seals, D. R., and Melov, S. (2014). Translational Geroscience: Emphasizing function to achieve optimal longevity. Aging 6 (9), 718-730.
Zhavoronkov, A., and Cantor, C. R. (2011). Methods for Structuring Scientific Knowledge from Many Areas Related to Aging Research. PLoS One. 2011;6(7):e22597. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0022597. Epub 2011 Jul 22.
And if you want to know more, here you have something else to read about living, aging, dying and "not dying": more info

more info

if you already know a bit or two about biological immortality, at: Fight Aging you can find information updated almost every day with links to interesting articles regarding aging, senescence and anti-aging treatments.
and if you are new to this, you might want to read this (below) at first...
1.
If you are a Wiki-reader, you might start from Wiki and check what Wiki-people (people who write content for Wiki) know about life, death, already existing extreme longevity in nature, etc.
They usually know a lot about everything... And this time their knowledge is no different than other times... They do know a lot. So... here it comes... You may find info, written by Wiki-people, thanks to these "magic words" and Wikipedia site (hope you know what to do):

- life
- ageing
- evolution of ageing
- senescence
- death
- the longest living organisms
- life extension
- life extenstion articles
- regenerative medicine
- immortality
- biological immortality
And for dessert: 12. Turritopsis dohrnii.
This one is really interesting, because for now, it is the only one potentially "immortal" species known to human... (and some say that "there can be only one", so in that case - sorry folks)... But, seriously...
It is believed now, that this jellyfish is able to reverse aging process and go from adult stage to polyp stage and live her/his life again. Theoretically it can do it indefinitely. And some say that it might be the key to extreme longevity. (Well, at least if you want to re-live your life from "polyp" stage again and again and...)
2.
If you are familiar with the Wiki-knowledge or prefer to read something else than Wiki, you may find some really interesting information at these sites (at least you could have read it in December, 2014):

At Senescence, Longevity and Biology of Aging (great site prepared by one of the scientists working with aging (Dr. Joao Pedro de Magalhaes)) there is lots of basic info about aging, links to journals, academic research centers, informational sites, scientists and companies.

At SENS Research Foundation - you can find lots of information about facts and research from non-profit organization working with fighting aging.

Here (again), at Fight Aging you can also find basic information regarding aging, senescence and fighting aging.

At American Federation for Aging Research - you can find information prepared by AFAR (basics + links to others).

And here you will find a debate that took place at Oxford University (25.04.2012) about "defeating aging" and some other than just biological aspects of it. It's called "The Debate of the Ages: This House wants to defeat ageing entirely". I, personally find it quite interesting.

3.
And if you already know a bit or two about biology of aging and longevity, you may find some newest facts about research regarding aging, senescence and longevity in scientific journals.

journals

(listed in alphabetical order, with their Impact Factor level (from 2011-2014):
AGE - IF (2012): 4,084
Ageing Research Reviews - IF: 7,628
AGING - IF (2011): 5,127
Aging Cell - IF: 5,939
Archives of Gerontology and Geriatrics - IF: 1,525
Biogerontology - IF: 3,19
Experimental Gerontology - IF: 3,529
Gerontology. International Journal of Experimental, Clinical, Behavioural and Technological Gerontology - IF: 2,681
The Journals of Gerontology, Series a. Biological Sciences and Medical Sciences. - IF: 4,984
Mechanisms of Ageing adn Development - IF: 3,51
Neurobiology of Aging - IF: 4,853
Rejuvenation Research - IF: 3,931
And if you've read all this, now you know a lot... So let's go further... So...

where can we go?

How long can we live in good health?
How can we achieve it?
And do we really have to die?
What do you think?
If you already have your answers, it's probably this one...
We don't have to die... at least not "because of old age"... probably...
Am I right? Was it your answer? I'm sure it was, but even if not... Well...
Hear this out...
Biological possibility for extreme longevity is pretty much inevitable... (at least, that's what some say, me for example)...
And the question is not "if people will "stop dying, because of old age"?" but "when it will happen?"... And from what some scientists say, it might happen quite soon... So now...
You may still think of this prospect ("not dying because of old age") as of science fiction idea or you may take it for real... It's up to you. But you should know couple of things...
First of all... As you probably already know, there are two possibilities...

There is the first one...

People (We) are born with a specific mechanism that makes them (us) die of age (self-destruction mechanism). It is encrypted in their (our) DNA - it's in their (our) nature. It's just how it works...

And there is the second one...

People (We) are born "to live" only... with this specific mechanism encrypted in their (our) DNA (without self-destruction mechanism), but the mechanism that is functioning quite well for the first 10-20 years, after that (or some say that even earlier - from the beginning) starts to malfunction. Malfunctions accumulate with age and people (we) start aging (in a bad way). In that second possibility "aging" and eventually "dying of old age" (dying because immunological system doesn't work as good as it should and people (we) are more prone to illnesses, because muscles are weaker (e.g., heart muscle), because brain stops giving right commands to the rest of the body, etc.) might be seen as "just another illness", like common flu or pneumonia. OK, maybe it's a bit more complicated, OK, it's definitely more complicated... much more... Anyway... Right now this "illness" is rather lethal and unfortunately incurable... but it's only for now (hopefully)...
And now... Either way... The same time you read these words, there are (as I wrote before) hundreds of scientists trying to find out what happens during aging, why (precisely) do we die and how they can prolong human life... And there are even some who try to figure out how to make people "stop dying, because of old age at all"... So, knowing our human nature, it is just the matter of time till someone finds the "cure" or the way to change nature (evolve?)...
It means that there is no "cure" for "dying of old age" now, but surely there will be one in the future... some even say that in next 10 to 50 years, well, who knows, maybe they know something more... they probably do, but anyway... even if it happens 50 years later... or 500 years later... it surely will some day... (at least unless we won't extinct earlier in some huge war or during meteorite shower... or... you know...)
And to say more... One might ask why "not dying because of old age" is inevitable... Well, because it's how the nature works. You see, in nature, there is this process, some call, evolution. And during this process some organisms survive and other die. And we live in time when one species survived and evolved into brainiacs - that's us. And now - we (as part of nature) are doing the same thing that every other organism does. We live, we explore, we change the other aspects of nature in the way that helps us to survive (every species does it), we eat representatives of other species - plants or animals (like other species), we clean ourselves (like other species) and we use our brains (like other species, at least these with brains). And our natural brains are able to think how to help those bodies they have, to change things that make them (bodies and brains... ok, actually brain is part of the body, but let's leave it like this) weaker. The difference between us and other species is that we can do much more than others... We can change the length of our lives in the way that other species can't... possibly for forever... but it is still the way of nature. So we will "stop dying, because of old age", because that's how the nature works... The nature is searching for being able to survive... And one day it'll succeed...
or at least it's one of possible point of views... but not the only one...
So don't just stop buying life insurance yet because someone said that the nature will help you "not to die".
And hear this out...

"near future" projects - how fast can we get there?

So, as you probably already know, right now, there are plenty of people looking for that "better aging" or for "stopping deaths caused by old age".
But you might not know yet that there are even some projects dedicated especially to finding the way to "stop dying, because of old age". And I would like to tell you something about two them now.

1. SENS PROJECT

The first one is SENS Project. SENS is short for "strategies for engineered negligible senescence".
SENS Research Foundation is trying to find the ways to repair/rejuvenate our bodies. They believe that there are seven main classes of damage that make us more susceptible to dying and make our later years not as fun as it could be. These are: (1) extracellular junk, (2) intracellular junk, (3) extracellular cross-links, (4) cell loss and atrophy, (5) death-resistant cells, (6) cancerous cells and (7) mitochondrial mutations.
Their idea is to find the ways to, well..., one might say, throw out the garbage that we accumulate in our bodies throughout our life, repair or replace things that are damaged and thus let us live longer in good health. According to SENS, thanks to this, we could be healthy, feel "younger", be less prone to illnesses, etc. for couple more decades.
And after some years (couple decades) we would have to repeat the rejuvenation procedure, and it could go on like this... maybe even indefinitely... so we could get our "never-ending story of life" if we wanted...
And it might sound simple, but (even if) it only sounds like this, and the research behind those simple words is as much complicated as every other research regarding aging and rejuvenation. You can read (or watch) much more about it on their site.
What is the most important, I think, is that they try to address all the issues regarding aging and "dying because of old age". They are not concentrating on one illness, but at the possible reasons for all of illnesses correlated to aging... (at least, that's how I understand what they are trying to do)...
And the second thing is that they believe, that we don't have to understand everything about aging to rejuvenate ourselves, to repair our bodies...
I'm not sure if it's that simple - address seven aspects of aging, because these seven aspects are a bit different in different body parts, tissues, cells and there might be other aspects about which we don't know yet, but as I wrote before, I think it's worth to try this (maybe not as the only way, but as one of possible ways to "reverse aging").
What is worth noticing, is that research in which they are engaged, is giving us new knowledge about human aging and possible rejuvenation and even if addressing those 7 aspects won't be enough, we will have more knowledge in the matter. So, it's a win-win situation with their work.
And what is important is that they say we can achieve this "repaired youth" in less than 50 years. So, it's rather soon...
And that's it about this project. If you want to find out more about their research and projects they are engaged in, check their site http://www.sens.org/
Their facebook site: http://www.facebook.com/sensf
Word from wiki-people: SENS Research Foundation - wiki
Meanwhile, there is a second idea...

2. AVATAR 2045

And the second idea is quite different. Because, you see, biological way for "stopping dying of old age" is just one way for human (at least that's how some people see that). The other way is cybernetic way and there is at least one project especially dedicated to finding cybernetic tools and procedures that could allow "extreme life extension".
It is called Avatar2045. As far as I know, in this project scientists are trying to find the way to: create artificial brains for humans, transfer information from human brains into artificial ones, create computerized bodies for these brains and thus help people "not to die because of old age" and other biological illnesses. And they want it to be ready till 2045, so actually even sooner than SENS...
And some say that even Dalai Lama approves this project... I haven't confirmed it yet with him, so for now let's say it's a rumor... but I saw a picture of him on their page, so the rumor might be accurate...
With this project the most difficult issue is, I guess, preparing the "artificial brain". For now, we know a lot, but still very little about human (or any other) brain. We don't exactly know how it works. There are several aspects we need to understand: our memories, consciousness, emotions, motivations, etc. In that brain of ours there are about 86 000 000 000 neurons responsible for our believing that we are the "ones" (me - John, you - ?) and our "continuity" on all levels (knowledge, emotions, self-awareness). We know a bit about what these 86. are for and a bit about how they are connected, but it's 86. of them and there are 100 000 000 000 000 connections (synapses) between those cells... And if we want to make ourselves these new brains capable of being the proper substitutes for our original brains... Well... Let's just say that there is a lot to do in this area. Not to mention that we would have to transfer data (about our memories, consciousness, emotions, motivations, etc.) from our actual brains to those artificial ones and that's quite a challenge (one might say).
But, nevertheless, I think it's worth to try. Even if we won't be able to construct these brains and "transfer ourselves to them", we might find out a lot about our brains, so again - research in this area is also a win-win situation.
And that's it about AVATAR 2045. You can find more about their project on their site: 2045 Initiative
their facebook site: http://www.facebook.com/2045Initiative
and what wiki-people say about them: 2045 Initiative - wiki

3. So...

So these are the two projects... And now...
If SENS succeeds we could stop "dying because of old age" in less than 50 years.
If AVATAR 2045 succeeds we could stop "dying because of old age" (and we would get some more advantages/disadvantages of our new bodies, depends how to look at it) in about 30 years.
There are also other projects and some of them even say that we could stop this dying "of old age" in less than 20 years, but I think that's enough for now.
If you want to know more about these projects, check the internet, they are all there.
So... what do you think now? Can human "stop dying because of old age" in next 50 years?
If you are not sure yet, that's ok. No pressure, you have some time... still...
And meanwhile... let's think deeper... about... problems, questions... and the future that starts now, let's think why aren't we there yet? And how can we get there?

problems, questions... and the future starts now - why aren't we there yet? And how can we get there?

So, they say that we should "stop dying because of old age" in couple of years (in 2033, 2045, 2064, etc. - depends on who is talking), but for now we still aren't. So someone might ask - why? And the answer would be quite simple - mostly, because there are some scientific problems with making this "not-dying" actually possible...
So, what are those problems (one might ask)... Is it that we don't know what to do? Or we don't know how to do it? Or both? And what exactly we don't know?
Is it the question of which genes should we change, or how to activate them in human genome, or what else will happen if we activate them?
And where should we look for answers, solutions to these problems? How can we get to the place in which we would be able to call ourselves "long-lived"? Should we be checking FOXO or IGF-1 or TOR or SIRT-6? Or is there something else? Should we be testing C. elegans or D. melanogaster or some mammal like M. musculus or H. sapiens? Or maybe we should try with T. dohrnii or those 4000 years old trees or those 250 years old tortoises? Or maybe we should mix it?
Which procedures could work best: stem cell therapy, gene therapy, whole organ replacements, etc.?
These are the coolest questions... And there are much more of them...
And actually, I won't give you any answers to these questions, but there are people who could.
And if you want to find answers to these questions, the first step may be the one taken to Panel Discussion regarding "aging and longevity" organized in your area (if there is one... if not - you may organize one yourself and ask some clever, full of wisdom and knowledge people that could explain to you some of these problems, answer to some of your questions).
Hope you will find some questions, and (hopefully) answers for these questions soon...
Meanwhile, that's it for now about biological aspects of aging and longevity.
And now let's think about something else... that is "other" matters - and let's think if we really want to go there?

"the other matters"

As you may already know, people live... people age... people die... (yes, yes, I know you know...)
But what if...
What if all this research regarding longevity succeeds?
What if even only 20% of human population (>1 000 000 000) starts to live longer than 80 or 100 years old?
Well, in that case, there are some questions that should be asked... and (hopefully) answered...
And these are, how I call them, "other matters". They are all those sociological, economical, psychological, etc. matters. And they are actually very important and the work regarding them should be maybe even one step before the work regarding finding the way to make people "stop dying because of old age". Because, you see, it is good to say "We know how to let people live more than 100 years old in good overall health", but it's much better to say "We know how to let people live more than 100 years old in good overall health, and we sure know how to deal with this in the way that everyone could benefit from this".
So, assuming that we will live longer and longer and it'll happen quite soon, it's about time to think how we can prepare for this...
There are couple of things that need to be addressed, while talking about human longevity.
The most obvious one is biological matter because even if we make people "stop dying because of old age", we are still talking just about the possibility for human organism not to die because of accumulation of malfunctions and age related diseases (like cancers, cardiovascular, neurodegeneration). But there still might be a lot of other diseases and injuries that might be problematic. People might still get their bones or even spinal cords broken. People might still be attacked by viruses (like Ebola or Rabies), etc. They could die because of these or they might have to live with consequences of these injuries or infections much longer (maybe) than nowdays...
And there are many other aspects of human nature that can make someone dead - there are wars, famines, natural disasters, etc.
And there will be some more aspects for us to deal when we all start to live longer... So it all should be taken under consideration...
These other matters are, for example:
- economical (e.g., how to make people cooperate so there are no "poor - old fashioned aging - slums" and "rich - resistant to dying because of old age - communities" in the future),
- ethical (should we even try to find the way to "stop dying because of old age"? is it ethical?... but this question can be added to those: should we even try to find the way to stop dying because of AIDS, pneumonia and other diseases),
- psychological (e.g., how to deal with much longer lives - it's hard enough to deal with our normal lives sometimes, so what if we are going to live for more than a century; how to deal with stress knowing that our bad choices may not only make us miserable for two decades, but for hundred years, how to pick a husband or wife for "potentially forever" (for some it might be great problem, not for all of course), how to deal with the fact that after finding the "cure" we might "never die"),
- sociological (e.g., how to deal with overcrowded planet, how many kids should one have if we "stop dying because of old age" (by the way, did you know that there were more than 7.000.000.000 people living on Earth in 2014 and there were less than 3.500.000.000 people in 1964 - so in fifty years we managed to double ourselves (probably thanks to mitosis)))...
And, I guess, you could probably think about plenty of other matters that might be problematic (much more after over 80% of population will become "long-lived" or just 20% will become centenarians)...
And it's good that you have those questions. Just don't stop with "that would be terrible" or "that would be awesome" or something like this. Try to rather think "So, there might be a problem (or an opportunity). In that case, what can we do to never let this problem to appear or to make it disappear (or to use that opportunity)."
So what do you think about it?
Do you have your answers? Or maybe you would like to get some? Or share your answers with others?
And how does it make you feel about searching for longevity?
Does it change anything?
What do you think...? Do we really want to go there? Yes? No? Yes?
Can you see more pros or cons of longevity?
Do you think we should search for it?
And please, hold your thought for a second, because before you answer to this question, there is one more thing, it's rather basic aspect regarding searching for longevity, it might not be important, but it might be... so here it is...
Remember that searching for longevity is not searching for some mythical "fountain of youth"... It's rather searching for answers regarding biology of aging, it's finding out what happens in human organism that makes us weaker, more prone to diseases after we reach 60. And it's searching for specifics, treatments, tools that could help address these age-related malfunctions, so to help people have better life after they reach 60, 70, 80, 100 and to help them live at least one more day longer in good health. It's that simple... It's just searching for ways to help people to live one more day in good health, however old these people are.
So the questions are - should we be trying to understand what happens with our organisms during aging? Should we be trying to use that knowledge? Should we be trying to find the way to help people live one more day in good health?
Well, you decide what to think about it...
I hope you have your answers... but if not or if you want to share them with others, you know, there is (or might be) this Panel Discussion about "aging and longevity" somewhere in your area. You could check it.
So - should we search for longevity? Should we be trying to help people live one more day in good health, however old they already are?
Now, it's up to you.
I hope those few ideas and thoughts, you had chance to read above, helped you to decide what you think about research regarding aging and longevity. If not... Well... You just lost approximately 5-10 minutes of your life while reading it. Ups, sorry, forgive me for that, please... And you better stop reading it and go and have some fun now instead...
And that's about it...
So for now let me just say that... We are dying...
We are dying, but we are still alive...
We can still do something...
We can go and eat some ice-cream or buy some ice-cream to someone we care about... and eat it together...
We can still do a lot of things, so we don't have to think about this dying (not ours nor others)...
Or we can conduct a Panel Discussion regarding aging and longevity... or take part in one...
But, no matter what we do, we should remember...
As I wrote somewhere before - what happens, happens...
You should be prepared for this and try to live the best way you can... and the way you like... And that's it...
And now, I hope you are still alive... and I hope I'm still alive when you read it...
Remember - what happens, happens.
And now read a word of wisdom about searching for longevity...

"word of wisdom"

First of all, people sometimes ask me: "do you want to live forever"? And I always say, that I don't... I just want to live (here and now)... I have no idea what I'll want in the future... But... I also just don't want to feel pain, e.g. in my joints (just like others don't want it, I think), I don't want to be sick (like others don't), I don't want to forget to wear my pants to my work (like... well, I don't know if other people want it or not), I want to walk without a cane, be able to eat for my own, use toilet without help from others, etc. (also like others). And if I can have it (for me and for those 'others' from my head), I don't want to live forever... but if it means living forever... well...
So... I don't want to live forever, but I'm open to this possibility... And I guess, for me, it might be just another (natural) step for humans...
But before it'll come, here you have a word of advice...

Advice:

Actually, I'm not the guy that gives advices, but if somebody asked me about what is important while working with aging, senescence, death itself, I would say something like this...
The first "thing" (I think) you should know, while searching for longevity, is that you will probably die.
The second is that, having that knowledge, you should not be afraid of dying itself. You should be prepared to die right here, right now... I do not wish you that, of course... but sometimes it happens, just like that, without any reason...
That might not be so important for your work (searching), but for your life it definitely may.
You see, while working with aging, you will probably be forced to think about dying... And one of the darkest scenarios is that this thinking might make you fall into scare of death or something like this... And because of that you might spend every minute of your life searching for way to avoid it, just because you are so afraid of dying, that you wouldn't have been, if you hadn't had started working with aging and thinking about dying in the first place... And remember that this "never-ending story of life" may never appear in your life... and you might get old, get sick, get pains in your joints, start forgetting your pants, etc. So if something like this happens, you may lose all your life for 'nothing'... And that is even more scary (scarier?)... don't you think...
So, anyway, remember... first of all, do not be afraid of dying (do not think about pink elephant, do not think about pink elephant ;)). Live your life and have fun in your life...
Second of all... Now you may start working with aging and anti-aging, because you can't have fun every minute of your life... Or maybe you can... in that case...
Have fun!
Or not, if you don't want to. It's up to you, after all.
Oh... And you may connect those two: searching for possibility to "stop human dying because of old age" and having fun, because it might be the greatest adventure of your life... You can even call it: The Quest to Find Immortality... Ok. That's enough, I think...
Live good, have fun, etc. in your (im)mortal life
and that's the end... (that one below)

"that one below"

And that's it. Now you know a bit more (probably) about aging and longevity...
So, once again, what do you think about this question:

can we "stop dying because of old age" in next 50 years?

Share your thoughts regarding this questions with others.
And if you want to find out more about research regarding aging and longevity and to find out what other people think in the matter, go to the Panel Discussion (or prepare one), read, ask biogerontologists or do whatever you do when you want to get an answer to the question you find interesting.
Meanwhile...
Live, have fun or/and do what you feel is right...
Good luck.

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Health and Aging Problem

Can we stop "dying because of old age" in next 50 years?
Can we live 100 years in good health?
Where is the limit?*