In my opinion it seems a distinct possibility nanotechnology will greatly extend our lives and there are probably two main ways in which nanotechnology will in time be able to achieve this but I see it as 50/50 by 2040. One route by which nanotech will extend life is by helping to eliminate life-threatening diseases such as cancer and Alzheimer’s, and the other is by repairing the damage to our bodies at the cellular and molecular level which is what SENS see SRF Home is trying to achieve through biotechnology and in all probability SENS is likely to come to fruition first. The most important potential interventions that are likely to be developed with nanotechnology lie in the potential for repairing our bodies at the molecular and cellular level. Techniques in Nanorobotics are already being developed which should make these types of interventions possible. For me personally because I have a specific interest in the area of aging I look at the fact that as we age the DNA in our cells is progressively damaged due to the impact of free radicals and other factors which cause mutations in both the mitochondrial and nuclear DNA. What must be factored in is that the mutations in the nuclear DNA are not likely to be a major problem over a lifespan even if its much greater than we have currently unless the mutations lead to cancer which unfortunately they sometimes do but Nanorobots or Nanobots as they are sometimes called would be able to repair the damaged DNA massively reducing the risk of cancer and allowing us to function optimally and reversing the damage caused by aging;It is the potential to restore our bodies to a more youthful condition that is particularly of interest to me but obviously the health benefits are massively important as well because the two go hand-in-hand. In my opinion aging is not that much different from any other physical disorder. Deteriorating bone density, wrinkled and sagging skin, Sarcopenia, Hormonal imbalances, slow wound healing, the loss of cells that we need and the buildup of senescent cells which we do not need, poor memory, loss of cognitive ability and all the rest of the terrible results of the aging process all result from damaged molecular machinery plus the inability of the body to keep itself in balance and perform the maintenance tasks which it did quite well when the person was young, add in all of the other problems such as protein crosslinks which cause arterial stiffening and intra and extracellular aggregates which are basically garbage which accumulate over time as a side effect of the bodies day-to-day metabolism and increasingly lead to infirmity, increased likelihood of chronic disease and ultimately death. By restoring all the cells and tissues of the body to a more youthful biological structure via Nanotechnology we will have the means to address these nightmares and attend to many of the medical problems which are currently beyond our technology. As far as the timeframe is concerned it's hard to be exact and of course the technology will mature as it's developed to a more and more sophisticated level. As things currently stand we already have the ability to utilise nanotech in a variety of treatments and clearly Nanobots will be the the ultimate development and I would expect us to start being able to deploy these types of technology at an increasingly advanced level within 15 to 25 years based on current progress.
