Well, brain and face diseases and cancers would still be a problem. "rejuvenate youth" is a magic phrase in there that promises a lot but doesn't actually mean much.
> "rejuvenate youth" is a magic phrase in there that promises a lot but doesn't actually mean much.
I disagree; though the phrase and its synonyms hides a lot of complexity — and I have to temper my optimism about research with the knowledge of millennia of snake oil — we'd recognise it if we saw it. (Unlike, say, "is this AI/animal conscious?", where we can't agree what the question means).
Would we? What all comes with "rejuvenate youth"? We have technology right now that makes one LOOK younger. Is it more than that? Where does it stop? Do our brains have to reverse their development so that the bits that don't fully congeal into our late 20's/early 30's are removed? Do we need to become impulsive, awkward, hormonal weirdos again? What's youth? 35? 25? 15? Does youth requiring scraping out all the plaque out of our arteries? Do we remove our scars? Do we get acne again?
A lot of what makes us us with all the wisdom of our age is also the bits that lead to the eventual breakdown and decay of our body. I think we'd need to lose ourselves to get our "youth" back. We're hoping for some magic where we keep all the good with none of the bad.
We've pretty much already done this with rats. The pop-sci summaries of the research I've seen (with all the caveats implied) say this improves cognition and memory, as well as general physical health and (because rats) fur colouration and quality.
Sadly, the usual problem is that rats aren't really very close to humans, merely closer than the other stuff we research with.
Yeah, fair enough. The goal isn't necessarily magic. But I feel like the way to get there, at the moment, mostly is, especially with something like comparing a mouses lifespan against ours.
