Fantastic Voyage

I just finished reading the book Fantastic Voyage (Live Long Enough to Live Forever) by Ray Kurzweil and Dr. Terry Grossman (see www.fantastic-voyage.net/). I first encountered Kurzweill some years ago, when I read his fascinating book, The Age of Spiritual Machines. He’s one of the world’s foremost technology futurists, with scientist credentials and an impressive track record of seeing what’s ahead.

A few months ago I ran across his book The 10% Solution, which I read with interest. It advocated an extremely low-fat diet to virtually eliminate your risk of heart disease and other life-taking ailments. The led me to discover the latest book, which has a rather dramatic premise: In the next 20-30 years, biotechnology will advance far enough that it should be able to eliminate most diseases, including arteriosclerosis, cancer, diabetes, Alzheimer’s and others, primarily through nanotechnology, which will provide molecular-sized robots with the ability to destroy, rebuild, replace or reprogram your cells. The result: If you can keep your health until the time comes, you should be able to live forever. Ponce de Leon, eat your heart out.

Kurzweil approaches the subject like a scientist, looking at all available research and concluding with what existing knowledge suggests about optimizing our health. It is a comprehensive look, covering not only diet and exercise, but other factors which include cell phone radiation, stress, etc. He takes a three-fold approach:

1. How each one of our body’s systems work, including what can go wrong and why. I’ve never been a capable student of science, but I found his explanations both interesting and readable.
2. Based on the best available research, how should you take care of each system? In most cases, this includes rather extreme dietary principles and lots of natural supplements.
3. Developments in technology that address the deterioration or diseases we incur. Most enlightening for me is all that is happening now, especially with testing done on animals, in many cases successfully. I was pretty skeptical when I started, but finished as a believer.

Two things. Thing One: I’m not really interested in living forever on this earth in its present state, and I’m doubtful that will really happen. But Thing Two: If I knew I had the option to live to a ripe old age with the benefits of a healthy mind and body, well, that’s worth some radical diet and lifestyle changes in my book, and in Kurzweil’s, too. Whether I die at 65 or 100, I’d like to do it with my boots on.