Ageless Nation: The Quest for Superlongevity and Physical Perfection [Hardcover]

Ph.D. Michael G. Zey (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 24, 2007

Some people understand the potential for technological advances to foster real social and personal change. Among them is Michael Zey, whose groundbreaking predictions about superlongevity — humans living up to 150 years — are detailed in Ageless Nation. Designer children, nanotechnology, and other advances, point the way toward a future where the aged live healthy and happy lives usually enjoyed by those decades younger. Zey focuses on the social effects of superlongevity — with regard to careers, business, marriage, and children — and how these shifts in daily life will ultimately be for the better.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this intriguing volume, futurist and author Zey (The Future Factor) imagines a time in which technology has stretched human life spans to 400 years or more. Genetic engineering, cloning technology and stem-cell science should eradicate disease and allow for nanoscopic repair and maintenance of the body, while "smart drugs" and "caloric restriction" programs ensure healthy bodies and sharp minds more or less indefinitely. Grounding his speculation in a thorough understanding of contemporary scientific research and present-day concerns (the environment, the post-boomer labor market, etc.), Zey's optimistic vision sees between-career hiatuses replacing retirement, and leisure time spent in the multi-generational home or on intense cross-cultural "immersion travels." Key players in the debate include supporters like Cambridge University scientist Aubrey de Grey, who envisions 5000-year life spans, and the radical futurist author Ray Kurzweil, who foresees the merging of humans and computers; meanwhile, organizations like the Coalition to Extend Life lobby the government for immortality research funding and find opposition in the President's Council on Bioethics and "deep ecologists" advocating zero-population growth. Criticizing current environmental trends as "anti-progress" and "anti-human," Zey's own solutions include controversial measures like human control of weather, colonization of outer space and genetically modifying food. He concludes that the "eventuality" of "a modern Fountain of Youth" is "closer than we think"; Zey's educated guess may not be entirely convincing, but it is both thorough and fascinating.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: New Horizon Press (July 24, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0882822764
• ISBN-13: 978-0882822761
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 6.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,213,549 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.