Scientists have discovered that mammals without the gene IRS-1, which is involved in regulating the function of insulin, live 20-30% longer and have healthier more active lives than those with the gene.
Those Epicureans who by definition seek a calm and peaceful life should be concerned. Next the scientists will be removing IRS-1 from hordes of people (rich ones, anyway) in a bid to get them living 20-30% longer. This could mean they live till they are 120 -130 years old. Doing what, exactly, and what unexpected wheels will have fallen off in the meantime? As if there were not, partly thanks to religion, enough people in the world already!
(Source: Centre for Research on Ageing, University College, London)
Anyone who really wants to prolong his or her life to 130 cannot have been reading the news!
I suppose it is a matter of the glass being half full or half empty. I am inclined to think that we are trashing our planet so rapidly that the thought of the next 50 years and the mess we will be in is appalling. Unfortunately my poor grandchildren will have to deal with the effects of our collective selfishness. As an Epicurean I am expected to be indifferent to their fate. Ummmh! You have to be autistic, not an Epicurean think like that.
Nonsense, all piffle and toss.
For one thing, don’t blame religion for overpopulation. Religion is a biological function, so it’s all biologys fault in the end.
The world population is falling, not increasing, all by itself. Why, who would have thought, market forces actually work!
Don’t be so pessimistic, western civilization is recovering from the supression of logic, and all is sunny! There is more oil in the world now then there ever was, and ditto for everything else! Global warming is a scam, or, as I like to think, a beacon of light from God, to show us the most wicked and gullible amongst us. 🙂 Google the chart of world temperatures for the last 4,500 years, nothing unusual is happening now.
I beleive, at the turn of the century (1900), there was a quiz given to average Americans. Given that the population was 100 million, and projected to double in the next 100 years, what problems did they foresee?
Well, where would they get all the horses? And how would they feed those horses? Think of all the buggy whips they would need!! No way you could have all the cows!
So don’t worry. We are in fine shape. There will be treble, quituple, the energy we currently have. Artificial minds will design devices we can’t imagine. We will become as Gods to the Islamics. Your children may even leave them the entire Earth! Let them squat in the mud here if they will, there’s an entire galaxy of New Earths out there!
Nice to encounter an optimist! Maybe my attitude derives from much longer on this earth than (I assume without any info) you have had.
Here’s that chart I was referencing, turns out it’s pretty hard to find!
http://www.longrangeweather.com/images/gtemps.gif