Could humans live forever? (2024)

FAQs

Could humans live forever? ›

No matter how advanced technology gets, it might be impossible for our bodies to go on forever. Some researchers believe there's a limit on how long it's physically possible to live: perhaps 125 years. But what if we don't need our bodies at all?

Humans can't live forever, but we haven't even come close to the limit for how long our bodies could last. Researchers estimate that the human body may not be capable of living more than 150 years. But dozens of companies and many researchers worldwide are exploring how our cells and DNA age.

We're only just beginning to understand what's possible for our longevity. InsideTracker founder Dr. Gil Blander believes humans theoretically may live as long as 310 years. Based on mathematical models, our longest potential lifespan is around 150 years.

To date, there's only one species that has been called 'biologically immortal': the jellyfish Turritopsis dohrnii. These small, transparent animals hang out in oceans around the world and can turn back time by reverting to an earlier stage of their life cycle.

If we eliminated ageing at the cellular level, humans could live for 1,000 years to potentially as long as 20,000 years, says a professor of molecular biogerontology. One of the key factors that contribute to ageing is DNA damage. The bowhead whale has a gene called P53 that is involved in repairing DNA damage.

Normally, as time passes, our cells undergo changes: Our DNA mutates, cells stop dividing, and harmful junk—by-products of cellular activity—builds up. All these processes together cause us to age.

Some scientists, futurists and philosophers have theorized about the immortality of the human body, with some suggesting that human immortality may be achievable in the first few decades of the 21st century with the help of certain technologies such as mind uploading (digital immortality).

They're now expected, on average, to live to 79. This average life expectancy is expected to further lengthen as time passes. The members of Generation Z, the oldest of which are now in their 20s, on average are expected to live to 100 and beyond.

A theoretical study suggested the maximum human lifespan to be around 125 years using a modified stretched exponential function for human survival curves. In another study, researchers claimed that there exists a maximum lifespan for humans, and that the human maximal lifespan has been declining since the 1990s.

But how long can humans last? Eventually humans will go extinct. According to the most wildly optimistic estimate, our species will last perhaps another billion years but end when the expanding envelope of the sun swells outward and heats the planet to a Venus-like state. But a billion years is a long time.

Can humans live infinitely? ›

Lifespan refers to the maximum number of years an individual can live, making lifespan unique to everyone. The longest recorded lifespan was Jeanne Calment who lived for 122 years and 5 months, making the maximum possible human lifespan 122 years and 5 months – that is, until someone outlives Calment.

Jellyfish. Turritopsis dohrnii, or Turritopsis nutricula, is a small (5 millimeters (0.20 in)) species of jellyfish that uses transdifferentiation to replenish cells after sexual reproduction. This cycle can repeat indefinitely, potentially rendering it biologically immortal.

Some of the damage that occurs in our bodies can be reversed, but with some 37 trillion different cells of 200 different types all affecting one another, there are cascading impacts. Your body's repair systems simply cannot keep up, catching and reversing every last bit of molecular damage.

Human evolution relies on the differences in our genes and in our ability to pass on these genetic differences (ie our breeding capabilities). Over time, the population should change as these differences become more apparent. If the genetic changes are great enough, a new species will arise.

Life expectancy is relatively easy to calculate—it's around 76 years in the U.S. But the maximum life span, if one exists, is much harder to estimate.

According to the United Nations Population Division, global life expectancy at birth for both sexes has improved from 46.5 years in 1950 to 71.7 years in 2022 and is expected to rise to 77.3 by 2050.

So how long does Earth have until the planet is swallowed by the sun? Expected time of death: several billion years from now. But life on Earth will end much, much sooner than that. Earth will become unlivable for most organisms in about 1.3 billion years due to the sun's natural evolution, experts told Live Science.

Humans' life expectancy (average) is 70-85 years. However, the oldest verified person (Jeanne Clement, 1875-1997) lived up to 122 years. As a person ages, the telomeres (chromosome ends) tend to become shorter in every consecutive cycle of replication. Also, bones start getting weaker by reducing in size and density.

Studies in the biodemography of human longevity indicate a late-life mortality deceleration law: that death rates level off at advanced ages to a late-life mortality plateau. That is, there is no fixed upper limit to human longevity, or fixed maximal human lifespan.

Could it do so infinitely? Some researchers believe that there's a limit on how many years a human being could live, the maximum being 125. Others see a world in which we have centenarians walking around with people who have lived for 500 or 1,000 years.