This was submitted today by a scientist and engineer wishing to remain anonymous:
To Whom It May Concern:
I recently came upon information relating to this matter that I thought might be relevant to relate to you.
It is feasible that someone could have been born with a genetic mutation that provided their telomeres do not shorten as the cells divide. This person's cells would be immortal, so they could keep the person looking young. Cancer cells are like this. This is not even that improbable of a mutation since it happens in almost every cancer.
However, the "not-quite-lucky" person probably would not live past infancy as it is this shortening of telomeres that keeps most aggressive cancers from forming. Cancerous cells with the mutation would need to restrict the number of times they can divide and renew dye to avoid formation of benign tumors. Most people have vast numbers of these, but even those that last are so small or hidden that people don't even know they occurred.
Someone would need to have some other adaptation to control cancer in additional to non-shortening telomeres to live past 600. A possible pathway would be to frequently remove cancers with some drug that was highly effective at cancers (an ambrosia). Another pathway would be if the body also developed a mutation that allowed the immune system to better identify early cancers quickly. Our immune systems can be taught to attack many types of cancer cells (proven), but the body is generally not very good at this since cancer cells are so similar to normal cells.
A controlled supply of stem cells would be needed, with a capability of these not becoming cancers and properly supplementing critical tissues and neurons.
If someone had such an efficient immune system, they would probably also have many allergies, etc... They might also have quite a few warts and bumps from cancers that had begun and then were terminated. The immune system would help them fend off some diseases, but they would have to have also been quite lucky to avoid some bad infection or fatal disease during the past 600 years of human history. The average human life span was under 35 years until this century.
Their cardiovascular system would need to keep itself clean. There are people with minimal risk of plaque build up. It is both genetic and diet related. In additional to avoiding heart attacks, such a person would also need to avoid clotting or brain blood flow impairments over such a long time.
Another issue for someone at age 600 would be that many joints would probably have worn out. This could be repaired now, but not even 30 years ago. Spine compression occurs over time, so unless there was also a mutation to somehow build better disk spacer that would be immune to this, and to many little bits of cumulative spine damage that might have occurred during such a long life.
Any wounds would have left many scars, unless they were quite lucky. The brain might be a bit slower. Since neurons do die, even if replaced by stem cells-turned-neuron, very old memories would fade unless the old information were frequently renewed. Maybe this person keeps good diaries and is good at sketching.
Don't forget that teeth wear down. This limited the life span of woolly mammoth. For humans, North American Indians that ate corn ground on stone with sand or grit lost their teeth and died before 30. Tooth abscesses used to kill many people, including 2 pharaohs. It may be possible for enamel to last that long, but the person would probably have been toothless and only eating mashed food for a few hundred years until dentures became available a hundred years ago. Now he could get implants and look great.
The easiest solution would be a genetically engineered person with access to great future world technology.
Sincerely,
Jaeger Soya Wynn
0 comments:
Post a Comment