UC Berkeley conference focuses on imagining the true reach of human longevity

How long do you think you're going to live?  It's something everyone ponders, but on Saturday, UC Berkeley hosted a conference for people who are imagining the true reach of human longevity. They say artificial intelligence may be a game-changer when it comes to extending our lifespans.

A few years ago, an insurance company posted a billboard that said, "The first person to live to 150 is alive today."  

That may seem like science fiction, but scientists met at the Cal campus to imagine just how far the human lifespan can be extended. But first, conference organizer Dr. Steven Garan said there was an important question that needed answering.

"One of the questions that was asked here today was why would you want to live 100, 200, 300 years?" he said. "And the answer is, 150 years ago we only lived for 38 years. That was the average lifespan back in the 1800's, OK?  And now we've more than doubled that, and nobody's complaining."

Since nobody was complaining, the conference reviewed what is currently being done in the field. Dr. Haya Al Saud is a Saudi Royal Princess and Senior Vice President of an anti-aging research group called the Hevolution Foundation. She said medical scientists don't want to just diagnose illness, they want to predict it.

"You know, am I going to be able, one day, to go to a physician's office and tell him, listen, test me when I'm 20 and tell me if I'm going to develop disease when I'm 40," she said.  "And it's a simple as that, but it's a very complex process.  It takes years of studying.  It takes years of validation.  And then there's the next layer, which is the intervention."

She said she believes that in the next 10 years, there will be interventions developed that will help prevent the current aging process. And by that, researchers mean methods to drastically reduce the amount of illness and infirmity that currently afflict people in old age.  

Dr. Michael Conboy has been studying aging at UC Berkeley for almost ten years. His research is showing promise in rejuvenating tissue and reversing aging in mice by refreshing their blood plasma. He said he doesn't think it's far-fetched to believe that the illnesses that currently end people's lives could someday be a thing of the past.

"I think we're accelerating towards a point where we'll grow old and I don't know what we'll die from, but it won't be the usual things that kill them, that kill elderly people. It won't be from 'frailty,' right? It will be something else."

The idea isn't simply to help people live longer, but to extend the length of their good health. And Dr. Garan said AI will help scientists expand their capabilities, as it performs like an unlimited number of research assistants.

"Nobody here has a million human grad students," he said. "But now, anybody can have a million digital ones. That is such a game changer, I can't even...yeah, it's hard to describe."

So, does he believe that the billboard was correct about people living to 150?

"So, we don't use the word 'believe.'  We work on data and statistics and that kind of thing," he said.  "I have enough information and I have enough data to support the conclusion that, yes, somebody who's alive today--not just one person, but probably millions of people who are alive today, and I'm hoping I'm one of them--will live way past 150."

Dr. Garan said he's not sure what form that longer life will take.  There is one theory that people may outlive their physical bodies but there may be a way to upload their consciousness into a digital realm where human existence could go on indefinitely.  Nevertheless, Dr. Garan said he has a lot he still wants to do.  And he believes--rather, he has information and data to support the conclusion--that living a lot longer may well be within his grasp.