Live long, don't necessarily prosper.

• Author: Louria, Donald B.
• Position: FROM READERS - Letter to the Editor

The September/October 2004 issue featuring "population and its discontents" was very interesting. There is an additional variable that merits considerable emphasis, and that is the potential for extraordinary longevity. From antiquity to the present, the driving force in population growth has been fertility rates. For the past 20 years, these have been falling; after 2050, population growth will be driven not by fertility, but by the other end of life's spectrum, increasing longevity. Medical advances should, in future decades, make it possible to control or virtually eliminate major killers, including heart disease, cancer, stroke, diabetes, etc.; that could increase average life spans by 10 to 15 years. Modifying the aging process itself, literally preventing aging, could increase life span dramatically so that people could live, on average, to 110 to 120 years or beyond.

The science is moving at stunning speed. At present, the most exciting area is caloric restriction and caloric restriction-mimicking drugs. In addition, major advances are being made in understanding the genetics of aging and stem cells, and...