– Overview:
– Life expectancy has been increasing gradually due to advancements in treatment strategies and technologies.
– Longevity escape velocity occurs when life expectancy increases faster than one year per year of research.
– Mouse lifespan research has provided significant evidence on longevity.
– Research is essential to sustain the rate of life expectancy growth.
– Longevity escape velocity may lead to sustainable advances in life expectancy.
– History of the concept:
– Coined by Aubrey de Grey in 2004.
– Present in the life extension community since the 1970s.
– Popularized by authors like Robert Anton Wilson and Kim Stanley Robinson.
– Supported by futurists like David Gobel and Ray Kurzweil.
– Further emphasized in the book “Ending Aging” by Aubrey de Grey and Michael Rae.
– Predictions:
– Ray Kurzweil predicts the achievement of longevity escape velocity before realization.
– Kurzweil forecasted the event to occur around 2028-2030.
– Aubrey de Grey also predicts a 50% chance of reaching longevity escape velocity in the mid-late 2030s.
– See also:
– Life extension.
– Pro-aging trance.
– Rejuvenation.
– Technological utopianism.
– Transhumanism.
– Timeline of senescence research.
– References:
– Aubrey de Grey’s TEDGlobal 2005 talk on ending aging.
– Actuarial Escape Velocity concept from The Futurist.
– Palmer’s research on biological escape velocity pathways.
– De Grey’s paper on extreme human life extension importance.
– Various articles and essays supporting longevity escape velocity concept.
In the life extension movement, longevity escape velocity (LEV), actuarial escape velocity or biological escape velocity is a hypothetical situation in which one's remaining life expectancy (not life expectancy at birth) is extended longer than the time that is passing. For example, in a given year in which longevity escape velocity would be maintained, medical advances would increase people's remaining life expectancy more than the year that just went by.
The term is meant as an analogy to the concept of escape velocity in physics, which is the minimum speed required for an object to indefinitely move away from a gravitational body despite the gravitational force pulling the object towards the body.