Kurzweil hopes that dietary interventions and other tricks will extend his own life until major scientific advances can preserve him forever. It is true that there are ideas on how such preservation might be achieved, among them the rejuvenation of human cells by extending their telomeres (the nucleotide sequences at the ends of a chromosome that fray with age). If it works, maybe it can lift the realistic maximum to well above 125 years. But for now, the best advice I can give to all but a few remarkably precocious readers is to plan ahead—though perhaps not as far ahead as the 22nd century.
