Sergey Young, longevity investor and author, describes two timelines for life extension: the next 10-20 years could push humans past 120-130 years, while 25-50 years out brings radical tech like brain-computer integration and nanobots. Four diseases cause 90% of deaths after 50, and aging risk spikes around 45.
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We have created technologies to extend our life, but we haven't created life that we want to extend.
Sergey Young, he's the author of the book the Science and Technology of Growing Young, and he's the founder of the Longevity Vision Fund. Sergei. Investors in technologies that are extending the human lifespan, but not just extending the human lifespan, but making us live long, longer, while being healthier. So, Sergey, welcome to the mindvalley podcast.
The way to think about longevity is first, there's something, what I call a near horizon of longevity innovations. This is something which will be available to us in the next 10, 20 years. And this will actually help us to break this sound barrier of 120, 130 years, the maximum lifespan on Earth. The second piece is what I call the far horizon of longevity innovations. And this is something which will be available to us in the next 25, 50 years. It's really far away. It's some fascinating but also scary stuff, like human avatars, human brain computer integration, nanobots which are flown inside our blood. It's the world which consists not only of Internet of things, but Internet of bodies. Within this framework, within this, like, 25, 50 years horizon, technology is important, science is important, but ethics important as well.
So from what I understand, there are four primary reasons that we die. It is heart disease, cancer, Alzheimer's, and I believe the fourth is diabetes. Is this correct?
Yes. So I call it killer monster diseases. 90% of deaths after age of 50 happens due to these four diseases. Killer monster diseases, 1990, types of diabetes, cancer, heart disease, and neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer's. Right, so, and then our chances to get and die from this disease increase exponentially after age of 45. 50. This is where aging processes started inside our body, manifest themselves.
After the age of 45. Okay, great. So I just turned 45 or 46, whatever age I am. So I'm at the perfect time for this podcast. And thank you for picking 45. You could have just said 50 and made my day better.
You look, there's always, like, every day is a great day to start working on your longevity and your health. I do believe if we want to live beyond 150 years. Right, and we all need to understand that we're talking about decades or even a century today. Right. But let's take this longer term perspective. I do believe in our current biological form, it will be almost impossible to live beyond 150 years. So when I talk about the far horizon of longevity innovation, and actually, I do agree with the audience that we have live today, I'm just looking at questions and comments. Actually, when I talk about all these technologies, there's a healthy discussion is about technology, but half of the discussion is about the ethics. I've just done my TEDx talk, Morality of Immortality, and the whole notion is like we build these technologies to extend our life, but we still haven't created life that we want to extend. 60 to 80% of people, based on their ethical concerns and bad experience with aging in their family and with their loved ones, don't want to extend their lives. So let's come back to that SA.
