[pyrrhotech]

78 seems so young to die. I suppose my family is lucky to have good longevity genes and disciplined enough to live fairly healthy lifestyles. I have 3/4 grandparents still alive and relatively healthy in the mid 90s and several great and great-great grandparents lived past 100 even at times when that was even less likely than it is today.

I do expect there's going to be some revolutionary enhancements to human longevity over the next century. Not as optimistic as Kurzweil, but perhaps the oldest old will shift from ~120 to ~150 and the median from ~78 to ~100

[adamredwoods]

My father is doing poorly, and he is just around this "median" age. He has a chronic disease which somewhat contributed to him not moving around much. Largely sedentary, but not over-weight.

On the other hand, my in-laws are doing very well, into their 80's. They take walks, attend talks, stay active. They don't have any substantial diseases.

So IMO, the revolutionary enhancements will come from controlling diseases, so those with diseases do almost as well as those without.