How long do you want to live?

[kandrathe]

I find it incredibly hard to believe - there's just too many variables involved in the process. Everything from UV light to basic transcription/translation errors to your DNA naturally shortening with time causes the events which eventually lead to your death. The amount of repair and upkeep that just a single human being would need to guarantee a life free of natural death would just be staggering. The latest journals I've read on Alzheimer's suggest that everyone actually technically has the disease, just that your genetics determine the onset time (which, for most people is beyond their life span). We have no cure for Alzheimer's... how would that be addressed?

Then you also get into strange theories involving entropy and the body as an ordered system and such.
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However, there are enzymes that do RNA repair, and even repair transcription errors in existing DNA strands, or extend to "tails" as needed. The aging problem as I understand is that we are programmed to die. Endocrine processes go through cycles which slowly decline and cellular repair then suffers as a result. My sister and brother in law are pretty significant in the molecular biology sciences (NAS), and I study up to be able to communicate with them on topics of interest. One area they are involved in is understanding the processes of cell division. For instance, many cancers are caused by the cell division process gone awry where cells do not mature before beginning division again. Or, then again you might want to induce adult cells to "think" they are again juveniles (like stem cells) to be used to repair nervous system damage, or regrow lost limbs.

"We have no cure for Alzheimer's... how would that be addressed?" And, technically, the same is true for many cancers. At some future time we will understand how to prevent the formation of amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles. We know, for instance, that abnormal changes involve the proteins beta-amyloid and tau.

Genetics and the biology research performed in the past 20 years has already revolutionized modern medicine. Another 20-50 will continue to unlock the mysteries of "life" and allow us to, as the article refers, "play God".

To answer the original post; I would want to continue to live as long as I felt my contribution to humankind justified my consumption of resources. But, then again, I've always lived a fairly spartan lifestyle. :)

Edit: I found some fairly good sources of what I understand to be the problems.
Theories on Aging
Mechanisms of Aging