Life Extension – Yes or No? | RetirementSingularity.com

AI Engineered Age Reversal?

Age Reversal: Do You Want to Be 25 Again?

Will you live beyond age 100? A growing number of respected scientists and health researchers believe it is just a matter of time. Headlines like these appear nearly daily;

However, resistance to the idea of extending lifespans has many roots. A big one is the false assumption that life extension means spending many more years in mental and physical decline and frailty. Not only are longevity enthusiasts saying you will be able to live in a vibrant and healthy condition much longer, but also actually reverse aging! Are you in for getting your age reset to say age 25? By the way, if you exercise, go to the dentist, take medications or supplements for health, you are already in the “health-extension business”. If you stay completely healthy, apparently you don’t die (except if you get mowed over by the proverbial truck).

Another objection is the belief that if we cure aging, the population will explode! However, a look at the population growth trends shows another problem – humans are not reproducing enough to avoid a downward cascade in population. In most developed countries, birth rates have fallen below 2.1 per woman (meaning below replacement rate). Also, even if as of today no one died, it would take many decades before we would reach earth population carrying peak. Human experts along with help from artificial intelligence (AGI and ASI) will likely also extend that further by solving the many-faceted environmental problems.

As the owner of Retirement Singularity, I keep a relatively close eye on the many sources that report on advances in healthy life extension. Perhaps the most important one that is hard to even conceive of is the advent of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI when AI reaches human levels at most endeavors) and then possible shortly after, Artificial Super Intelligence (ASI when AI surpasses human abilities at all endeavors). Having super intelligence directed at the super-complex human biology could result in fairly fast advances.

The costs of any life-extension or age-reversal therapies or drugs will likely start high, but given the market (8+billion people) and continually advancing technologies, costs would likely drop fast. We may even see government subsidies for rejuvenation treatments given that people may demand equal access. Governments should soon see that a healthy population is a good governmental investment.

So, that brings me to the notion of “retirement”. Indefinite healthy life extension puts a wrench in the typical thinking that retirement is your last phase of life. So how should we approach retirement and retirement planning? As my late brother used to say, “That’s a good question, and one that has been much on my mind of late!” And this in fact is the primary topic of concern for RetirementSingularity.com

1) To help track and understand the changes already occurring and those that will soon hit us, and

2) To gain perspective on what those changes will mean to our lives, and

3) What practically should we do now.

Please be sure to sign up for future updates (see form on this page) and join this exploration!

Michael

Live long, live well and prosper!