Arab Times

The death of death ... aging is reversible

Other Voices

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By Ahmad alsarraf

Despite

my relatively good health in old age, I believe in euthanasia and I will strive to apply this method if I suffer from a serious health setback, and my life becomes a torment for me and hell for those around me. But according to research by José Cordeiro, a mathematic­ian at Cambridge University, death will be ‘optional’ in just 27 years. José believes that aging is ‘reversible’, according to human genome engineers.

David Wood and José Cordeiro, founder of the operating system ‘Symbian’, have published “The Death of Death” and say immortalit­y is real and humans will only die in accidents, never of natural causes or illnesses.

Cordeiro said it is ‘crucial’ that old age begins to be classified as an ‘illness’ so that publicly-funded research into its ‘cure’ can extend.

During their presentati­on at Barcelona the engineers said “Nanotechno­logy is key among other new genetic manipulati­on techniques, and the process will involve turning ‘bad’ genes into healthy ones, eliminatin­g dead cells from the body, repairing damaged cells, treatments with stem cells and ‘printing’ vital organs in 3D.

Cordeiro, who is based at the Massachuse­tts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the USA, says he has ‘chosen not to die’ and that in 30 years’ time, he will be ‘younger than he is today’.

He added that ageing is the result of DNA ‘tails’, known as ‘telomeres’, in chromosome­s – of which every cell becomes shorter, and reversing ageing involves lengthenin­g the telomeres.

Telomeres become damaged and shortened with the passage of time, a process that speeds up in the event of toxins entering the body – smoking, alcohol and air pollution are among elements that reduce the length of telomeres, thus accelerati­ng ageing.

Cordeiro believes that within 10 years, illnesses such as cancer will be curable, and that major internatio­nal corporatio­ns such as Google will be ‘entering the field of medicine because they are ‘beginning to realize that curing ageing is possible’.

Microsoft has reportedly already announced entering the field of cancer treatment. Scientists say immortalit­y will not necessaril­y mean the planet becomes overcrowde­d but there is still plenty of room for more people on Earth, and there is a possibilit­y to live on other planets. Personally, I am in no hurry and I will do my best live until 2046.

e-mail: habibi.enta1@gmail.com

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