Curing old age

Yesterday, the New York Times ran a story on a process called "calorie restriction," which has been found to significantly slow the aging process in a number of species and might be able to do the same for humans. Calorie restriction "involves eating about 30 percent fewer calories than normal while still getting adequate amounts of vitamins, minerals and other nutrients," according to the article. And while the underlying process is still uncertain, calorie restriction has been "shown in various animals to affect molecular pathways likely to be involved in the progression of Alzheimer's disease, diabetes, heart disease, Parkinson's disease and cancer."\nFurthermore, research into life-expanding drugs has also challenged the idea that we humans have reached the upper limit of our longevity. A researcher interviewed by the New York Times suggested that it might be possible to "increase human life span to about 112 healthy years, with the occasional senior living until 140."\nNow, the article stresses that these estimates could be optimistic and that so far, little evidence has been gathered for whether calorie restriction works on humans. However, without engaging in the debate over the process's merits, I'd bet that within your and my lifetime we'll find ways to, well, extend your and my lifetime. And, as this is coming up, we need to seriously consider what this is going to mean for our future. Leaving aside some of the more obvious issues -- what this will mean for social security, for population demographics, etc. -- which are important but have also been dealt with extensively elsewhere, I'd like to pose a different question: How exactly does an individual go about filling 110, 140 or 200 years, or, even, an indefinite lifespan?\nPerhaps you can do it by watching TV or Web surfing, regularly investing in ever more sophisticated iterations of the Halo franchise -- or simply going about the basic, day-to-day tedium involved in earning a living. But while this might be technically possible, it doesn't sound like a particularly rich life. Instead, I suspect the secret lies in all of us becoming accommodated to the idea of personal reinvention, that we are going to have to get used to the idea that, every so often, it will be necessary to grab the wheel of one's life and give it a hard jerk in a different direction. And I believe, as well, that for many of you readers -- those belonging to the IU student population -- the time for determining your capacity for reinvention is now.\nHere you are: young, mostly healthy, relatively unencumbered (student loans, homework and part-time jobs aren't kids, a career and a mortgage) and in the middle of a community that not only bursts with new things, but positively begs you to try them. So right now, do as many things as you can. Embrace change. Because you don't want to spend the next millennium stuck in a rut.