We always wanted to live longer; however, an expert has spoken out about the real reason why you should never want to lengthen your life.
According to him, prolonging human life could have significant negative consequences for society.
Many individuals and civilizations have sought immortality or escape from death, Dr. Ramakrishnan offers reasons why this may not be as desirable as it seems.
Biologist states humans should never want to lengthen their lives
In an interview with ABC News, promoting his new book titled "Why We Die: The New Science of Aging and the Quest for Immortality,"
He said that getting older happens when our bodies get hurt over time, but he made sure to say that our bodies are really good at fixing themselves.
Not everyone's body gets hurt at the same speed, though, and different things can make it happen faster or slower.
But, according to Dr. Ramakrishnan, if everyone stayed alive for a really long time, it wouldn't be like the perfect societies we see in movies. He thinks there would be big problems.
He highlights the lack of generational turnover and the potential stagnation of ideas that would likely occur in such a scenario.
Even though science fiction stories might imagine societies where people live forever, Dr. Ramakrishnan says that biology is more concerned with studying why we age and discovering ways to have longer and healthier lives.
He points out that in many parts of the world, people are already living longer lives than before.
What if we eliminate deaths caused by the terminally ill?
Additionally, Dr. Ramakrishnan offers a dose of reality by explaining what would happen to life expectancy if we managed to eliminate major causes of death like cancer, high blood pressure, and diabetes.
He mentions a calculation that indicates a mere gain of around only 15 years in life expectancy.
Instead, he suggests that addressing the underlying causes of aging could potentially lead to longer and healthier lives.
Instead of seeking the prolonging human life methods, people should improve their health as humans get older.
After the explanation and consideration of the aging process, Dr. Ramakrishnan wants to warn people when it comes to wanting to live longer without thinking about it too much.
He emphasized the importance of understanding how humans age and improve their health as humans get older, and people need to think about how it might affect society as a whole.
Instead of just wanting to live longer, they should focus on finding the reasons why people age and work towards living healthier and more fulfilling lives in old age.
By doing so, humans can have a better quality of life rather than just wanting to live for a very long time.
