post on kurzweilai forums related to aging

I think we have solved the mystery of ageing. Ageing is what happens when imperfections in the body's ability to repair itself and clean up the waste which it produces is allowed to accumulate. Why is it allowed to accumulate? Because the selfish gene does not give a fig about damage or waste which negatively affects survival rates only after that period of time in which reproduction is likely to occur. As there are several very different causes of damage and waste we cannot look to one single way to tackle the causes of ageing but require instead a range of techniques for dealing with each of the seven deadly sins of ageing.-Extropia DaSilva

Some of the most metabolically active cells, and thus the ones producing the highest amount of damaging byproducts of metabolism, cells that do not even divide to dilute this damage, are neurons. What have we seen? Even with the exact same genes, nondividing neuron cells can live over twice as long as the original host when transplanted between species. That tells you that in some cases some of the cells already have active mechanisms sufficient to last at least twice as long as the host does. So what is going on? At the cellular level it seems over twice the lifespan is possible with existing genes, in some species, if the right genes were being activated.
The problem with Aubrey's view is that one might say the same SENS protocol might also be required to say triple a long lived species lifespan, say a bonobo's lifespan from 40 years to 120 years, yet we know humans with less than 2% genetic difference(most of the difference likely unrelated to lifespan extension.), accomplished this and many SENS protocols were not necessary. We also know that some species that appear not to age appear not to have undertaken some of the sens protocols like mitosens or WILT.
It is also said that there are closely related species were one ages and the other does not, suggesting that all that might be required are small amounts of genetic tweaks to reach negligible senescence.

It is also known that another mammal, the Bowhead whale, can reach 200+ and has possibly a theoretical lifespan of about 250 years!
Why the Bowhead whale is outliving so much the other kind of whales?-melajara

Some sources say the bowhead whale might not even age.

Because the naked mole-rat is better adapted to deal with the damage. I'm sure we could get humans to live to 200, if we for 10 000 years only allowed those with the oldest (grand) grand parents to get children.-Erik

Within the mouse the neurons have the capacity, the mechanisms, to live over twice as long as the mouse itself(probably even longer than twice if not indefinitely), these are the cells that are subject to some of the highest amount of damage of all cells due to their extremely high metabolic activity. Also unlike other cells these cells can't divide to dilute the damage in daughter cells. All the defense and repair mechanisms of these neural cells also exist in each and every cell of the mouse, as the genome is shared, and since most of the other cells have lower metabolic activity the mechanisms might actually be overkill as they can handle far greater generation of damaging byproducts of metabolism than other cells actually produce, plus others cells can dilute the damage by dividing.

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