You Look Great in Those Genes

So . . . researchers have identified a set of genes that appear to predict longevity, specifically that a person will live to 100 (with 77% accuracy). So some people, possibly as many as 15% of the population, have the genetics to lead a very long life. Apparently a test will be available to buy by late summer, so that you can check if you’re among the lucky ones.

Say I: big effin’ deal. So what? Guess what the leading cause of death isn’t? Old age. More people die of disease, injury, accident, homicide, suicide, etc. than live to their full potential life. So it really doesn’t matter if you can live longer, because to be blunt, chances are you won’t. It ultimately comes down to our friend luck, deciding where someone goes first – centenary or cemetery.

It’s great that we have science that can tell us what our genes are for, so that when we’re building our futuristic cyborg army we can make sure they only have the best genes. But in real terms, what will we know? That longevity is hereditary? We already know that. That very few (about one in six thousand) actually live to 100? We already know that. That people don’t live (or live up) to their full potential? Not news to me.

Back to this test that will be available – what would you do with the results? Let’s say you found out that you could possibly live to 100. Would you do anything differently? Maybe change your diet, exercise a little? My personal take on it is that I would rather do the things I enjoy (e.g. eating ice cream) and not make the triple-digits than doing things I don’t (e.g. eating soy cream) just so I could do the things I don’t enjoy a little longer. Plus (running theme of blog alert), seeing as we don’t really know what causes what in the first place, changing my behaviour is an exercise in random chance.

And if you found out that you weren’t going to live longer, what would you change? Don’t we already live more or less based on our own personal priorities? If you want to have the best life possible (however you happen to define that), you do the things that you think will make that happen.

Now, if they had a test for genes that meant that ice cream made me healthier, sign me up.