Lifespan: The Revolutionary Science of Why We Age—and Why We Don't Have To

by David A. Sinclair

Nearly every day, and often multiple times in a day, someone tells me that they have no interest in living to 100, let alone many decades longer. “If I get to a hundred, just shoot me,” they say. “I think that seventy-five healthy years sounds about right,” they say. “I just can’t imagine having to live with my husband for even longer than I already have to,” one rather distinguished scientist once told me. That’s fine. Indeed, there seems to be little appetite for the idea of living in perpetuity. I recently gave a talk to a general audience of about a hundred people spread across ages 20 to 90, a good cross section of the local community. The main donor to the institute was late, so I had to fill in time. I grabbed the microphone and did a little experiment. “How long do each of you want to live?” I asked. By a show of hands, a third said they’d be happy with 80 years; I told that group that they should all apologize to all the audience members who were older than 80. That got a laugh. Another third indicated that they’d like to see 120. “That’s a good goal,” I said, “and probably not an unrealistic one.” About a quarter wanted to make it to 150. “That’s not a silly thing to dream about anymore,” I said. Only a few people wanted to live “forever.” The numbers were similar at a recent dinner at Harvard for scientists who study aging. Very few of the attendees said they were gunning for immortality. I’ve talked to hundreds of people about this topic. Most people who want i...