New research reveals longevity gains slowing, life expectancy of 100 unlikely

(lafollette.wisc.edu)

215 points XzetaU8 | 1 comments | 30 Aug 25 16:15 UTC | HN request time: 0.324s | source

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lemoncookiechip ◴[31 Aug 25 13:49 UTC] No.45083139[source]▶

I find it a tough sell to add another 20 years to life expectancy, considering that by the time you reach 70, most people are already in decline (some worse than others), and the drop from 70 to 80 tends to be steep for many. Those who make it past 80 into their 90s or even 100s often aren’t living particularly fulfilling lives, if you can even call it living at that point.

Losing your vision, your hearing, your mobility, and worst of all, your mind, doesn’t sound very appealing to me.

So unless we find a way to both live longer and to decliner slower, I just don't see the point for the majority of people who will unfortunately live lonely worse lives.

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meeks ◴[31 Aug 25 14:10 UTC] No.45083261[source]▶

>>45083139 #

I think this is a huge misconception and I don't think it works this way. have you heard people say 50 is the new 40, etc.? The same thing would work at older ages. Sure the last 10 years are a decline, but you are pushing those years out not adding more of them.

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1. ACCount37 ◴[31 Aug 25 14:31 UTC] No.45083418[source]▶

>>45083261 #

This. Expecting a "150 years lifespan" to look like "90 years of aging normally and then staying at 90 for another 60 years" is simply unrealistic.

The very reason you're expected to die in your 90s is that your body has decayed into a complete mess where nothing works properly anymore and every single capability reserve is at depletion. You die in old age because if you spend long enough at "one sliver away from the breaking point", statistics make going over it inevitable. Even a flu is a mild inconvenience to the young, but often lethal to the elderly.

To make it to the age of 150, you'd pretty much have to spend a lot more time as a healthy, well functioning adult.

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