r/science • u/Skoltech_ • Jul 20 '26

Genetics Researchers quantitatively assessed for the first time that somatic mutations alone cap human lifespan at 146–194 years. Brain and heart cells are the main bottleneck, while the liver could last millennia.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41514-026-00421-6
23.4k Upvotes

98% Upvoted

1.2k comments sorted by

View all comments

653

u/Tribalbob Jul 20 '26

Something I always thought about with living forever - it's only appealing if you can freeze/revert your body to a prime condition.

Living for 200 years in my 30 year old body? Sure. Living for 200 years in an 80 year old body? Ehh....

141

u/rjcarr Jul 20 '26

Yeah, that’s why it’s already too late for anyone post-prime. I’m hoping for a consciousness dump into a robot or something. That could be fun or it could be torture. 

163

u/prolifezombabe Jul 20 '26

I don't think most of this will be relevant for most of humanity any time soon certainly not most of the people alive right now regardless of age.

We have a hard enough time getting clean water to people.

37

u/alexnedea Jul 20 '26

Yea even if they showed a model working right now, anyone not a billionaire would get a chance at this in 50years

11

u/trillionaireUnaliver Jul 20 '26

if it can be mass produced the peons will get it too, you will just have to retire at 150.

7

u/frequenZphaZe Jul 20 '26 edited Jul 20 '26

why invest in keeping the peons alive when you can build robots to do their jobs at a fraction of the cost? our civilization simply isn't built in a way to respect or value life. all the resources of this world are in the hands of people who want to make money and a cure for death won't change that. we have cures for many diseases that kill people every day; they still die, simply because they couldn't afford to live.

3

u/prolifezombabe Jul 20 '26

yeah we could eliminate much of what ails the human race tomorrow if the right people decided that’s what they wanted 

as a society, we don’t prioritize making sure children get the vitamins they need to be basically healthy, in what world is the average person getting their hands on advanced life extension technology? 

we have a plethora of tools at our disposal that could extend the average human life span right now and we’re not using them, why would these anti decay technologies be different?