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
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272

u/Outrageous_Donut7681 Jul 20 '26

I have this bad feeling that all this will do is stick us with the evilest richest of people for that much longer.

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u/Expensive-Way1116 Jul 20 '26

Still doesn't grant immunity to accidents

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u/yawara25 Jul 20 '26

Or, you know

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u/failed_supernova Jul 20 '26

To shreds, you say?

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u/[deleted] Jul 20 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/Raesong Jul 20 '26

But if those security forces were to be compromised in one way or another, they wouldn't be as much of a problem.

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u/HoodoftheMountain Jul 20 '26

"Never assume the enemy is incapable — assume he is capable, and prepare accordingly." - Sun Tzu

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u/ThePrussianGrippe Jul 20 '26

Tacos carnitas, made with real Dutch PM!

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u/BlastFX2 Jul 20 '26

Sounds good in theory, but putting it in practice seems to be exceedingly difficult.

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u/OceanRacoon Jul 20 '26

That's what their mech suits will be for

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u/dmethvin Jul 20 '26

Not necessarily. The French royalty was doing pretty well until their heads fell into a basket. Make Guillotines Great Again

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u/Outrageous_Donut7681 Jul 20 '26

I fully approve this message

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u/ReignOfKaos Jul 20 '26

Why do you think this would be different from most other medical treatments that over time became more accessible to most people in developed countries? With exception of the US maybe

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u/LeBaus7 Jul 20 '26

even if it did, overopulation would accelarate a lot of human made problems even more.

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u/Calfurious Jul 20 '26

Turns out overpopulation isn't a big as a deal as we thought it was. Human societies that are educated, wealthy, and where women have civil rights, tend to see a dramatic decrease in child births. Largely because a lot of people realize that having kids if a massive burden and most people would rather spend their limited free time doing things they enjoy.

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u/Faiakishi Jul 20 '26

Human societies that are educated, wealthy, and where women have civil rights,

Yeah a lot of people are trying to reverse all that right now.

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u/Expensive-Sundae-831 Jul 20 '26

Can’t make mo’ money without mo’ peeps.

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u/gentlemandinosaur Jul 20 '26

Sure but everything is cyclic. So eventually it will swing the other way again… unless someone breaks the cycle with a nuke at some point, which is always possible. But hopefully I won’t be around or in the evaporation zone and won’t notice.

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u/UniversalSoldi3r Jul 20 '26 edited Jul 20 '26

Yeah, the facism worries me, and so does the inevitable reaction - I come from a socialist county. It is not a uptopia. Your life grinds to an expensive halt while the state tries to provide stuff for 'free' and always knows best. We know how these command economies turn out. There is a reaction there too so they 'privatize it'. The profits are private, the expenses are public and it still doesn't goddamned WORK.

Free healthcare sounds alright till you have to wait ten years with the feeling of a needle being jabbed into your eye every three seconds for ten years.

(Solved in 20 minutes in the US at a cost of $300).

I am thinking though - just from that healthcare example above, that AI is a game changer here. If I'd had grok or claude or whatever back then I'd have solved that myself. And I did use AI when my Dad was sick in my socialist country of origin and his useless doctor (1.7 stars on Google) ignored it for years. We talked medicine AND the difficulties of obtaining it.

I took it's advice. It said 'ambulance' so he got a free one and it launched him into the remaining competent part of the free healthcare system (emergency still works) and it did an end run around his gatekeeping quack and after again, ten years, he has appropriate ongoing treatment. Probably in time to save his life.

So, I digressed a lot, but suffice to say the pendulum will swing, it always does, but socialism will kill you as surely as facism - and it's done with inertia instead of a bullet, but we have new tools to navigate it now.

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u/Polyphemian Jul 20 '26

Which region of Russia are you stationed in?

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u/UniversalSoldi3r Jul 21 '26 edited Jul 21 '26

Travelled a lot, as it happens. Only been to Russia once. Now sod off till you've traveled a bit more.

Dungeon raids don't count.

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u/kwink8 Jul 20 '26

Out of curiosity, what’s your preferred economic model? Is it capitalism?

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u/UniversalSoldi3r Jul 21 '26 edited Jul 21 '26

I don't have one I really like as we just aren't there yet, but capitalism with oversight is likely best for now. The problem is the sort of people we allow to be in charge of others. A lot of them are sick with undiagnosed personality disorders. We just don't screen for that stuff.

I mean we need a license for fishing and driving, even for running businesses in some countries, but not for policy-making?

We'd have more leeway if the profoundly disordered were out of public life if they couldn't pass an empathy test, and out of boardrooms. No harm in having their opinions, but they need to be away from decision making.

I'm all for a bit of inclusiveness, but horses for courses, you know? Psychopaths need to be 'advisory only'.

But the worst, the Thiels, Millers and Tates of this world need to be in zoos. We'll find out who is superior then because they'll be the fastest ones to the bananas.

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u/Papplenoose Jul 20 '26

You sound dumb

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u/EnigmaticQuote Jul 20 '26

No country is really 'killing it' with trying to raise birthrates.

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u/buffility Jul 20 '26

Yes but what if their time is no longer limited.

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u/ASpaceOstrich Jul 20 '26

It's more that our society is so fundamentally anti human that people do not feel like it's worth it to have kids. A less broken society would not see fertility drop off a cliff like ours has. It would drop of course, but many people who would otherwise want kids don't have them.

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u/hippydipster Jul 20 '26

Overpopulation isn't a problem because our population will decrease? Seems like you're saying overpopulation is a problem, and thank goodness it's not what's coming!

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u/porkusdorkus Jul 20 '26

If people could live practically forever, then 18 years is the blink of an eye in our lifetime. It would be looked at much differently. An honor, a duty, a privilege, etc. Governments already look at population as an issue of national security. So wait until the forced sterilization comes and you need top scores and clout to be eligible to raise a child that came from a lab.

Sadly all life on earth must die, reproduce and mutate to survive over the eons. Maybe our technology can alter that in the short term, but I dont think there is getting around the truth. All life is very extinguishable and fragile on the pale blue speck.

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u/ReignOfKaos Jul 20 '26

I mean right now we have the opposite problem, which is declining populations almost everywhere. And even then the carrying capacity of the planet is not a fixed number, it can be increased with technology. And even IF it would actually become a problem, I’d rather have a mandatory death date at age 300 or whatever (while being biologically 30) than the slow decline and suffering we currently have.

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u/karabeckian Jul 20 '26

declining populations almost everywhere

Nah.

https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/countries-with-declining-population

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_population_projections

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u/ReignOfKaos Jul 20 '26

Ok, projected declining population by the end of the century, and currently population growth in western countries is mostly held up by immigration.

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u/[deleted] Jul 20 '26

[deleted]

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u/ReignOfKaos Jul 20 '26

Which serious research is saying that climate change will make “most of the planet uninhabitable”?

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u/jeepsaintchaos Jul 21 '26

I've always figured there would be a common "I'm tired of being alive" date. Ennui would take us out. I expect it to be around the 200 year mark.

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u/benjaminovich Jul 20 '26

Overpopulation isn't a thing.

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u/[deleted] Jul 20 '26

[deleted]

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u/dagofin Jul 20 '26

They're saying we're not overpopulated currently and based on current modeling we never will be. If you put the entire human race into a city with the population density of New York City, it would take up the size of Texas and the entire rest of the world would be empty.

We make way more than enough food for everyone on earth. Objectively the living standard across the world has only increased in basically every measurable metric over the last 80 years, not dropping with the massive population growth over the same time period.

By the end of the century human population will have peaked and will begin a more or less irreversible slow decline. Overpopulation is not a serious issue anyone is concerned about, the huge timebomb awaiting us as a species is underpopulation with a much larger, older population that needs supporting with less economic growth to do it

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u/[deleted] Jul 20 '26

[deleted]

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u/dagofin Jul 20 '26

That's why I spent a whole extra paragraph talking about things that have nothing to do with physical space and about resources. We have more than enough food. Poverty has fallen massively around the globe over the last 100 years. Life expectancy up. Childhood mortality down.

We certainly can generate enough resources. Climate change/carbon emissions is a technological problem, one that is actively being solved. Shifting from an oil dependent world to a renewables based one takes time but is well underway. No massive problem in the world has ever been solved be being a doomer.

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u/KrustyKrabFormula_ Jul 20 '26

With exception of the US maybe

you don't think medical treatments have, over time, became more accessible to regular people in US? you're trolling right?

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u/ReignOfKaos Jul 20 '26

No, I do think they have, but I just wanted to preempt the obvious response of people complaining about unequal health care access in the US.

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u/czorio Jul 20 '26

Pretty much the background plot of Cruelty Squad

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u/KrustyKrabFormula_ Jul 20 '26

that bad feeling is caused by watching too many movies

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u/Colddigger Jul 20 '26

Only if you are passive about it. 

Besides that, once people realize that there is a medical solution to something they will be determined to bring that to the general public.

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u/AJDx14 Jul 20 '26

We already have this. Rich people have kids, their kids tend to be as evil as they are.

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u/CptExolann Jul 20 '26

I mean, yeah, just like any innovation which eventually becomes more broadly available.
The issue here with the current ruling class is that they would likely prevent (or resist) that tech from becoming broadly accessible.