The anthropic principle

Certain scientists are impressed with the obvious fact that the universe is compatible with our existence. If any of a number of properties such as the charge on an electron, the strength of gravity, or the strong nuclear force had slightly different values then life as we know it would not be impossible. Why did things work out just right for us? Perhaps we are just lucky. However, there is another area that seems to be to be a strange coincidence, the fact that I am alive at this specific time. In the 4 billion years of Earth’s existence and the at least 200,000 years of homo sapiens reign I am here now in this remarkable age. Two major event are about to happen. The first is that we will hopefully before too long leave the Earth and establish our species and type of life off our mother planet. I personally believe that we are doing less than we could to make this happen but that it will. The second area is that of eternal or at least a very long life. With the advances in modern biotechnology there is a generation alive that will not have to die of old age. New discoveries are coming fast and furious that allow us to understand how life works and that aging is not inevitable. The secret is repair. As I have mentioned before in this blog, diseases such as progeria show us that aging can be accelerated and that it is due to a reduction in the normal repair mechanisms that keep us healthy. If there is no repair to tissues and organs we get old fast. An example is osteoprosis. Our bones are continually being repaired by types of cells called osteoblasts and osteoclasts. Even children will get old fragile bones if this mechanism is not working. Similar repair mechanisms work in other tissues. Also, we see species of similar size that have very different life spans. Why do dogs live just a few years and parrots live into their 50s? Aging is programmed by our genes by controlling the length of time that our normal repair mechanisms are allowed to operate. Our genes get rid of old folks that consume resources past their child rearing years for the benefit of the next generation. We don’t wear out, we are turned off. In the not too distant future we will be able to stop our programmed death.

It is amazing to be alive at this point in time. Our species is about to become extraterrestrial and live forever.