playing golf on the moon (with David Bowie)

Human 2.0

According to this BBC Horizon programme it's really not going to be a problem keeping a version of Bowie alive long enough to complete the mission:

"Meet the scientific prophets who claim we are on the verge of creating a new type of human - a human v2.0.

It's predicted that by 2029 computer intelligence will equal the power of the human brain. Some believe this will revolutionise humanity - we will be able to download our minds to computers extending our lives indefinitely."

The German is 48

Great news. I discover that the guitar playing German is older than me! See http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/5087846.stm.

Catabolic dominance

Thanks to Paula Webb for steering me towards Dr Paul Clayton who has lots of good things to say about how to extend our life expectancies through changes in nutrition and lifestyle - and thus stand a better chance of being alive when affordable lunar tourism becomes a reality:

"I believe that it is possible to stay healthy into ripe old age and to combat, and even reverse, the underlying causes of many diseases.

Underpinning all my research and advice is this simple fact. Given the right nutrition and lifestyle, our bodies have amazing powers of self-healing and regeneration. They have to – because almost every cell and tissue in your body breaks down and is replaced on a regular basis. Bone is re-absorbed into the body and then renewed, cartilage in joints experiences wear and tear but is renewed, membranes of nerve and other cells are broken down and replaced.

This natural process of wear and repair is going on all the time in your trillions of cells. The process of growth and re-growth in bones, cartilage and other tissues is called ‘anabolic’. The process of tissue breakdown is called ‘catabolic’."

Living to be a 1000 yrs old

The fascinating just-this-side-of-loopy Aubrey De Grey appeared on Radio 4's Start The Week the other day. He was talking about why he believes the first person to reach 1000 years old may already be alive. (Could it be that there are two of us - me and DB?)

De Grey was pretty much poo-pooed by the other people on the programme, but if DB and I could extend our lives to, say, 2099, moon tourism could well be quite a mature industry by then.

Check this MIT article:

"in order to achieve his goal of transforming our society, de Grey has transformed himself. His “day job,” as he calls it, is relatively modest; he is the computer support for a genetics research team, and his entire official working space occupies a corner of its small lab. And yet he has achieved international renown and more than a little notoriety in the field of aging, not only for the boldness of his theo­ries, but also because of the forcefulness of his proselytizing on their behalf".

This feels quite close to home - and holds out the hope that one day people will take my moon golf project seriously.

You can download the Demos collection of essays entitled 'Better Humans? The politics of human enhancement and life extension' here.

Living to be 100 yrs old

More than a million people now in their 30s could live to 100 years old and beyond, experts have predicted.

David Blane, professor of medical sociology at Imperial College London, said: "One hundred is an entirely achievable lifespan even now. "It is going to become extremely interesting in a few decades as people begin to reach 100 more regularly."

Professor Blane said improved treatments for heart disease and cancer are among the reasons for the global rise in life expectancy. Improved diet and lifestyle, especially among the affluent, are also responsible. And the decline of heavy industry means that workers are far less likely to be exposed to the health risks and dangers or heavy machinery.

The increased use of cholesterol-lowering drugs in recent years has been shown to reduce the risk of heart attacks and strokes. Under new prescription guidance to GPs, up to one in ten adults could end up taking statins to prevent cardiovascular disease.

The Future of Evolution

So it's going to take roughly 4 million years for us to become true 'astrans' - http://msnbc.msn.com/id/7348103/

Keeping Bowie alive

Very interesting article in National Geographic with associated online project entitled "Quest for Longevity"

Bowie is now 58 years old. According to this article if we can move him to Japan or Sicily, or convert him to Seventh Day Adventism we might get another 40 years out of him. Will that be enough time to get us to the moon? Will he be fit enough to play golf?!