Imagine a world where old-age is non-existent and humans did not succum to the trials of time. In such a world, everyone would stay young and healthy for all of their lives -- however long they may be. An article in discover magazine stated that in this scenario the average lifespan of a human would be 600 years with many people living to be over 1,000 years old. Eventually everyone would die of accidents but it would mean you would be able to see many more tommorrows. To some people, especially the ones who think that humans live too long already, this is not a great thought. For many, 100 years is already too long. That may be because living to a very old age where you are completely senile is not very appealing to some people. However, in this world without age, you would never age physically, and would be eternally youthful.

To some others(especially those of the faithful), death is not such a scary thing. Death is but a passageway into another life. For Christians, death is the path out of the earthly world and into the heavenly one. However, the thought of leaving your loved ones behind is hard both for the dying and for the ones left behind.

The answer to all this is of course to create a cure not for disease or chronic illnesses, but to conquer aging and death itself.

This may seem very far-fetched and is something you may think we, as humans could never achieve by advances in science or medicine. However, if you just look at the fact that the average human lifespan has increased in the last century from 45 years to over 75 years, it may not be all that much of a stretch.

Scientists have already discovered that a vital part of the aging process resides at the end of linear chromosomes in a region called Telomeres . These structures contain genetic material with vital information for cell function. However, each time cells divide, some of this genetic material is lost and eventuall through many cycles of division, cells become less and less functional due to this loss in genetic material. If Telomeres could be prevented from losing genetic material through each division, a large part of the aging process could be slowed or even halted.

Of course there are problems with this plan. The first being how would we invade a body's cells to extend of telomeres without disrupting the body itself and killing the person. I don't think we could just conjure up some magic potion to do this. This would require an enormous leap in the technology of genetic engineering and we will probably not see if in this lifetime(which means I won't be becoming immortal anytime soon).

The other problem is doing such genetic engineering may result in the starting of a serious disease we all know as cancer. Preventing cells from losing this genetic material and dividing into eternity may result in the rapid spread of cancerous cells. Not only do we have to keep the telomeres from losing vital genetic material but we must make sure that once this is accomplished, that the cells do not spread without control.

Besides these problems there are other complications such as brain cells and other cells that do not divide very often and have other ways of aging.

However, human advances in technology and medicine has been able to do some wonderous things and the pace of advancement is not linear but exponential. Perhaps one day our descendants will discover the secret to Eternal life. Like the elves in Tolkiens world, humans may someday live through many ages of the world.

However, if we do achieve this step in technology and medicine, it will bring us many philosophical questions. The greatest of which will be "are we as humans ready to step into the realm eternal?". Like the elves of Tolkiens world that do not age and are not plagued by sickness, many succum to grief or die in battle.Suicide rates may go up for those who have lived many centuries and have seen too many loved ones die or are just tired of life and are ready to move on. Overpopulation would also be a problem as new humans are born into the world without the old ones leaving it. How would humans handle eternal life? Would be bring forth a new and glorius age or would we destroy the world with this newfound power?

Perhaps it is best that we never discover the secrets to eternal life for as Vorlon Ambassador Kosh said in Babylon 5 to the younger races(including humans), "You are not ready for immortality".