Fantastic Voyage : How to Benefit from Cutting Edge Science and Add Years to Your Life - Hardcover

Terry Grossman

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1405077603 ISBN 13: 9781405077606

Publisher: Macmillan,London, 2005

Synopsis

Live long enough to live for ever! Immortality is within our grasp. We are in the early stages of multiple profound revolutions spawned by the intersection of biology, information science and nanotechnology. With the decoding of the genome and our efforts to decode its expression in proteins, many new life-extending methodologies are emerging. This fascinating book brings it all together for the layman. Accessible and clear, Fantastic Voyage charts the progress that has been made and points the way to what is to come. From the self-evidently sensible (take plenty of exercise) to the truly mind-boggling (reduce biological ageing by the injection of nanobots), it lays out our paths into the future with plenty of practical recommendations for age-deferring in the present.

About this title

Review:

The idea behind Kurzweil and Grossman's Fantastic Voyage is that if you can make it through the next 50 years, you might become immortal. How will that be possible? Through some rather science fictional steps, it turns out, including taking advantage of the latest in biotechnological breakthroughs and not-yet-invented nanotechnology. Is all this longing for immortality driven by an obsession with youth or a fear of death? Readers can judge for themselves, as both Kurzweil and Grossman reveal the personal histories that led them to develop this plan. Fantastic Voyage is written in an easy-to-understand tone, with lots of sidebars giving examples of what the future holds for medicine and health. Whether or not you think that science will find a way to keep our bodies or our disembodied minds alive forever, this book is full of diet and lifestyle tips. For instance, the authors suggest carefully controlling the body's overall pH at an alkaline level, meditating, eating a diet composed mostly of vegetables and protein, and taking loads of supplements (Kurzweil downs about 250 pills each day). The dietary options presented here will mostly only be practical for people whose income levels can support buying organic produce, fresh fish and meat, and top-shelf supplements. The authors cavalierly state that we are living in a "time of abundance," but it seems likely that most who are able to follow this regimen will be Americans of a fairly high socioeconomic class. --Therese Littleton

About the Author:

Ray Kurzweil was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes at 35 and subsequently learned to control it through nutrition, exercise and stress management. He is the author of the bestselling 10 per cent Solution for a Healthy Life. Dr Terry Grossman was a conventional GP-type doctor until a knee injury that didn't heal properly caused him to investigate alternative therapies. Both baby boomers, in their mid-50s now, they hope that by following the advice they present in this book they will live long enough to take advantage of the era when extreme longevity will have become commonplace.

About this edition

• Publisher: Macmillan,London
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 1405077603
• ISBN 13: 9781405077606
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 464