Most effective method to prolong the life of a single person?

Question

Let's assume that the dictator of a large and rich country is approximately 70 years old, and that signs of old age are showing, meaning that his death is not very far. Let's assume that the people of the country want to keep this person alive for the longest possible period at any price.

Let's assume that the dictator is a healthy person who does not have cancer, is not obese and exercises regularly. All medical and biological resources (bioengineering, genetic engineering, etc...) of a large and rich country are available.

My question is:

• What is the most effective method to keep the dictator alive for the longest time possible, using modern or near future state-of-the-art medical and biological technology and surgical procedures?

By "alive" I do not mean cryogenics or any other type of stasis - the dictator should be able to live a (largely) normal life and fulfill his duties and obligations.

Answer 1

I would say Heterochronic parabiosis. Basically, a young person and an old person share a circulatory system. This means that the factors which make a person young get into the old person along with the dilution of factors which make a person old. One could possibly have young people feed their plasma into the old person to rejuvenate them.

As well, senolytics may be useful, clearing out damaged cells and the factors that they circulate which make people old. See here.

Edit: Heterochronic parabiosis is the procedure of surgically joining two organisms of different ages so that they share a similar circulatory system. Because aging is a systemic disease (it affects all parts), a significant percentage of the factors which govern again are quite often found in one's circulatory system. There are factors which rejuvenate people and keep them young and their are factors which contribute to aging. By linking circulatory systems, the old people get the 'youth' factors, while offloading the 'aging' factors onto the young organism. This leads to the old organism rejuvenating (though it must be said that the young organism gets the short straw as it ages). So inserting blood plasma from younger people -- which some researchers are currently testing or about to test -- may be a way to get a young person old again.

Senescent cells also influence aging. These cells are cells that are dysfunctional but have not been cleared through apoptosis (cell death). They exist in a senescent state where they give off aging factors into the local environment and blood stream. Removing these cells through various chemicals called senolytics has been shown to increase cardiac output and reverse other signs of aging in mice. One could imagine that a person may be given senolytic compounds to rejuvenate them.

Edit 2: I also want to say that one could potentially isolate the factors that make organisms young and basically have a drug cocktail. Such factors like GDF11 show promise to do so. The problem is that there are so many factors which govern aging and youth so coming up with a complete list is very hard and very tricky. You can though, dependent upon how technical you need it to be, say something like 'a drug cocktail to extend aging which included GDF11, blah, and blah.'

Answer 2

If you throw morals and ethics into the nearest black hole (and start early enough), you might be able to get a cloning and organ harvesting setup going.

It's reasonable to assume that we could clone a human today, and even if only 1% of clones are viable, the rich country could afford it. Then, raise the children and once they're of age (or the dictator suffers a kidney failure or whatever), harvest their organs to replace the failing ones of the dictator.

Answer 3

Ivan Stepanovich Filimonenko, one of the founders of nuclear physics and the developer of the project to neutralize radiation, did not try to create an elixir of eternal youth. The discovery made by this outstanding scientist is not just sensational, but, at first glance, fantastic.

Knowing that the main source of radioactive contamination is the isotope potassium-40, Ivan Stepanovich calculated that the duration of our life is inversely proportional to the amount of radioactive elements contained in the body. It is this isotope that decays in the human body and destroys all living cells. The body, however, restores them, but the action of the isotope does not stop, and the cells die again and again. The human genetic program is designed to replace cells no more than a hundred times, and, having spent its limit, the body concedes to the radioactive monster. Thus comes the inevitable old age and death. So, since we get radiation exposure from the environment, the fewer sources of radiation there are in this very environment, the higher the average life expectancy will be.

Ivan Stepanovich did some calculations and determined that if the human body throughout its life contained 245 grams of potassium-40, the duration of its life will be equal to 61 years and seven months. If you reduce the content to seven grams, the average is 2531 years , and at 0.7 grams of potassium-40, the life expectancy will increase to 25,300 years!

He created the world's first radiation neutralization unit 50 years ago, and it successfully passed all the tests. But as is often the case, he was not allowed to put this installation into practice. But Ivan Stepanovich so dreamed of conducting his experiment on some territory and reducing the content of radioactive substances, if not to the level that was on the land of the ancient Sumerians, then at least by half. However, such an experiment would have to be strictly classified, otherwise thousands and thousands of pilgrims would rush to this territory in the hope of prolonging their lives. For" a place in the sun " they would have trampled each other for sure. According to the scientist, the powerful even then offered to equip him with miracle installations in special underground cities,

Answer 4

There are a few options for your ailing dictator.

• Pump him full of nanites that take over most if not all of his body's functions.
• Do what Plinth said (Heterochronic parabiosis).
• Upload his mind into a quantum (or any other type that could handle the job) computer.

that's all I can think of for now.

P.S. Why do the citizens of a dictatorship want their (most probably) cruel oppressor to live for ever?!