BOOK REVIEW: Ray Kurzweil and Terry Grossman, M.D., FANTASTIC VOYAGE: LIVE LONG ENOUGH TO LIVE FOREVER, Rodale 2004.

Aubrey de Grey, the British biomedical gerontologist who recently appeared on 60 Minutes and gave a lecture on “Why We Age and How We Can Avoid It” on TED is convinced that we now have the resources to repair metabolically damaged tissue so as to be able to live for 1000 years.  He believes that it is possible for a 50 year old to “pull out of the dive” of aging based on current and immediately anticipated technology.

Ray Kurzweil and Terry Grossman think so as well.  They have written any easy to read book dealing with the high complexity of modern medicine that should be mandatory reading for all physicians and anyone who accepts the principal of personal responsibility in health care. The book is actually three books dealing with the major forms of metabolic degenerative issues facing all of us today with a current regimen of diet and supplements that can address current conditions (Bridge 1); drugs and therapies in current development (Bridge 2) and futuristic nanotechnology on the horizon (Bridge 3).

Kurzweil’s and Grossman’s suggested diet and diet supplement therapies together with their discussion of metabolic damage of aging are alone well worth the read. The futuristic look into evolving healing processes and techniques are an added bonus. One gets the sense that these two or absorbing hundreds a vitamin’s a day which would be an extraordinary and prohibitive cost for most people.  They do provide peer reviewed information regarding the efficacy of certain vitamins and diet supplements for specific problems that can help anyone work through the bewildering array of myth and misinformation swirling around the industry.

Terry Grossman is a family practice physician practicing in Golden, Colorado and engaged in what some wags refer to as “immortality medicine.” Ray Kurzweil is often referred to as the “Benjamin Franklin of Technology” is a prominent inventor, scientist, author and futurist heavily involved with speech recognition technology, artificial intelligence and “transhumanism.”  He is interested in the ability of humans to transcend biology through the use of technology. He believes that eventually the knowledge in the human mind will fuse with the greater potential capacity, range and reach of machines to create what he describes as the singularity. His books The Age of Spiritual Machines: When Computers Exceed Human Intelligence and The Singularity Is Near are must reads for anyone interested in the future direction of technology and health. Kurzweil and Grossman have a new book just out, Transcend: Nine Steps to Living Well Forever which is bound to be fascinating, but don’t miss reading Fantastic Voyage first. It truly is.

Comments

[Alison]

Its a nice theory, but thats all it seems to be. Every month it seems I hear about new, promising results and technology that we're on the verge of that will dramatically extend our lifespans...never seem to see anything beyond that, though. Nothing substantial...

[shanmugam]

Its a great article, but thats all it seems to be same. The life is beyond the limit so there is nothing substitute for this.