Transcend nine steps on the way. Alcohol

Transcend: Nine Steps to Eternal Life Ray Kurzweil, Terry Grossman

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Title: Transcend: Nine Steps to Eternal Life
Author: Ray Kurzweil, Terry Grossman
Year: 2009
Genre: Health, Other educational literature, Foreign applied and popular science literature, Foreign educational literature

About Transcend: Nine Steps to Eternal Life by Ray Kurzweil and Terry Grossman

Longevity is real wealth, which, alas, is not given to everyone. The modern ecological system, the quality of food, the frantic pace of every day, the lack of rest - all this has the most negative effect on our health. Sports are not included in the list simply because it still occupies a significant part of many people today, because we all want to look good. But here, too, there is one "but". Sports are different, and just the desire to get pumped up can lead to health problems. In general, everyone decides what he needs.

Transcend: Nine Steps to Eternal Life by Ray Kurzweil and Terry Grossman is incredible. This is a book that every person simply must read and have in their arsenal. You can find a huge number of works about a healthy lifestyle, but at the same time they miss some points, they focus more on something.

Transcend: Nine Steps to Eternal Life not only has clear advice on how to live to 150 and beyond. All the facts that lead the author are scientifically confirmed. Health is not something that can be assumed or fantasized.

Ray Kurzweil and Terry Grossman write about how to lead your life right, how to exercise, what to eat. But most importantly, you will learn how to identify various diseases in the early stages, which doctor to go to, what tests to take, what to eat, how to be treated. It has everything from a to z on how to take care of your health. That is why the book will be extremely useful to young people, and for the elderly it should become a daily reading matter.

The book "Transcend: Nine Steps to Eternal Life" also tells that modern technologies and breakthroughs in medicine allow humanity to forget about many diseases, because cures have already been found for them. And, it is quite possible that soon we will all really get the opportunity to live, if not forever, but more than 100 years for sure.

Unfortunately, the modern system dictates such rules that only the strongest survive. There has always been competition, but it is today that people are required to have real superpowers. He should not sleep, have a personal life, should work like a machine, constantly giving out creative solutions, should be able to multitask. In the beginning, this is all real, but after a couple of years, between the ages of 23 and 25, we turn into old people who are constantly sick. And no one needs us anymore.

Separately, I would like to note the food. In the working rhythm in which each of us is, it is very difficult to eat right. When you come home from work late, you don’t feel like cooking something useful. At work, snacks - sandwiches, cookies, liters of coffee. Will the body survive on dry rations, and even of dubious quality?

Transcend: Nine Steps to Eternal Life is a treasure trove of advice, guidance, programs, research, and examples. You will be able to become more sensitive to yourself and your body, you will know how to eat in order to always feel good, which doctors to go to with a particular problem. But the important thing here is that Ray Kurzweil and Terry Grossman reveal the secret of longevity.

Published in Russian for the first time.

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I saw Transcend in the MYTH newsletter, got excited, said to myself: I want to read it! I will definitely read it! and ... safely forgot. Exactly until the publisher approached me with an offer to write a review. Everything grew back together and attracted. And here is the book on my desk, and in fact it is much thicker than it initially seemed.

Let me start with the shortcomings, so that later you will have a good impression, as the book as a whole is worth it. I do not pretend to be objective, but I will bring in a fresh stream in the general mass of reviews.

For me, a visual, a fan of texts, markups, paragraphs and selections, the book lacked the banal ease of reading. The book is complex, deep, in places not even near-scientific, but quite scientific. When you read such material, you want bold theses, shorter chapters and paragraphs, or some other division of the text, structure, so that the eye is fixed and rested.

For example, as in the "Chinese Study", by the way, released by the same publishing house. Also, the book is not massive, and in some ways even similar to Transcend, but it is perceived as much easier. Unfortunately, the authors of Transcend missed this moment. Although it is possible that this problem is being solved electronically, I have read the paper version.

However, if you persevere, wade through the jungle of small lines and do not fall asleep, you can find out very interesting and useful things. The Transcend program is based on two optimistic concepts: inhibition of the aging process and immortality that threatens all of us in the near future.

Nanotechnologies in medicine are developing exponentially, which gives the authors of the book the opportunity to predict an imminent revolution in the methods of treating and diagnosing diseases. In just 10-20 years, we will be able to turn off genes, use nanorobots to repair arteries and fight viruses at the cellular level. It will be possible to replace everything with nanorobots - lungs, heart and even breathing. Already in 2034, if desired, it will be possible not to breathe, since nanorobots will take over the delivery of oxygen to organs and the disposal of cell waste.

In other words, we are one step away from immortality. Now it's up to us to live up to the actual appearance of these technologies, not only in our right mind, but also to the maximum while maintaining the health of the body. The authors leave no room for illusions: “We are genetically programmed to die young.” In the first part of the book, the mechanism of aging and the occurrence of diseases is laid out on the shelves. Here are just a few of the issues covered:

What is actually the main cause of a heart attack? Looking ahead: if you follow the program plan, the authors guarantee a risk reduction of up to 95%
How to keep the brain working?
How and what kind of food affects the development of cancer?
What does the stress hormone cortisol do to our body, and what can we do to keep it from destroying us from the inside? Including recommendations on how NOT to deal with stress.
and much more.

The second part of the book is the solution to the problem—the plan itself. There are a lot of practical recommendations, both general and narrowly medical.

Eating within the plan involves many nuances, but in short, this is a moderate-carbohydrate diet in which the amount of carbohydrates does not exceed 40% of the total calorie intake. Moreover, these carbohydrates should be low glycemic. For people with weight problems, a low-carbohydrate diet plan is offered. Much attention is also paid to reducing the caloric content of the diet, counting calories and controlling the glycemic index of products.

For protein, the authors recommend favoring low-fat sources such as soy, legumes, nuts, and whole grains. Lean meats, fish, eggs and dairy products are also allowed, albeit in small portions.

In the chapter on sports, general strengthening exercises and stretching tips are given. They are suitable for those who have never played sports, are overweight or have a weak muscular corset. For those who are used to keeping themselves in good shape, these recommendations of the book may seem naive.

In addition to the well-known facts about the benefits of vegetables and physical education, the book also contains clearly insider information. For example, little-known additives and chemical compounds are given, with which you can both improve the functioning of certain organs and prevent serious diseases. The authors call supplements for the brain, heart, digestion, and so on.

Personal insights that this book has enriched me with:

The brain can be trained like a muscle. Moreover, it is necessary to train both the logical component and the psycho-emotional one. Reading more, doing crossword puzzles, playing chess, being creative is the key to a youthful brain.

***
Neural connections that have arisen once can be compared to a path that gradually overgrows. If you resume movement along the path, it easily emerges again. It’s easier to keep going than it is to start over, but successful beginnings release energy and forge new pathways—neural connections.

***
Cortisol stimulates insulin secretion, and excess insulin stimulates cortisol production. This is the vicious circle of stress-bulls-stress-buns familiar to all of us. If you get into it, then our body itself will work against the exit. At the chemical level.

***
The functioning of the body and its response to external conditions is largely the result of the gene program. Many things, such as inflammation, were necessary for our distant ancestors in order not to die from wounds. In our time, inflammation is more of a hindrance than a help. The same is true for the hormone insulin, which converts excess energy (sugar) into fat stores around the waist. Until we figured out how to turn off the genes responsible for this, the only thing left for us is a healthy lifestyle and proper nutrition.

And finally.

Do I recommend the book? Yes, but with reservations. This is a great read for those who like to get to the bottom of the matter and find out "how everything works here." For those who want to go further and learn more about why we age and how disease occurs. The book provides a lot of food for thought on these topics.

On nutrition, I took note only of dietary supplements, the information on which is exhaustive. Otherwise, nutrition based on calories and glycemic index seems to me an outdated approach. As the experience of millions of women shows, just keeping track of calories is not enough - this is a direct path to stress and even more weight problems. What matters is WHY we eat and HOW we do it. That is, today conscious nutrition comes to the fore and.

The chapters on the brain, genes, and stress management were the most engaging. It was very interesting to read about the future: future scientific breakthroughs and discoveries. Some things seem unbelievable in the short term, but that's what scientific forecasts say. And since one of the authors of the book is the world's chief futurist Ray Kurzwell, I have every reason to believe him.

With love to all of you, Valentina Gorbunova

Ray Kurzweil, Terry Grossman

Transcend: Nine Steps to Eternal Life

Ray Kurzweil

Terry Grossman

TRANSCEND

NINE STEPS TO LIVING WELL FOREVER

Published with permission from Loretta Barrett Books and Synopsis Literary Agency

Thank you for helping us publish ABBYY Language Services

Scientific editor Nadezhda Nikolskaya

All information in this book is for reference only. This book is not a medical manual. The information provided here can help you make informed decisions about your health. The information in this book is not intended to replace the treatment prescribed by your doctor. If you have health problems, we urge you to seek qualified medical care.

The information in this book should be used as a supplement to, but not a substitute for, proper exercise.

The exercise and dietary programs presented in this book cannot replace the exercise program and dietary regimen prescribed by a physician. To perform the exercises and follow the diets described in the book, you need to get permission from a doctor.

Legal support for the publishing house is provided by Vegas Lex law firm.

* * *

Dedicated to Sonya, Ethan and Amy who inspire me to live forever.

Dedicated to Karen... forever.

From a publishing partner

It sounds incredible, but before my eyes, the simple advice of the authors of this book gave a few extra years of life to a large number of people!

Sounds even more incredible, but the authors claim that we can double our life expectancy and slow down the aging process. Moreover, new technologies and knowledge that will be available in 20-30 years will reverse the aging process and give all of us the chance to stay young and live forever! Even if you don’t believe in such a possibility or don’t want to live forever, the prospect of being healthy, active and happy for as long as possible sounds tempting, doesn’t it?

Unfortunately, in terms of life expectancy, Russians lag behind residents of other countries by decades. For example, in France, men live an average of 15, and women - 10 years longer than ours.

I considered it impossible to significantly increase the duration of my life, or rather, I did not even think about such issues until a few years ago. However, the book Transcend convinced me that the prospect of living 100+ years is very real. Frankly, this figure looks much more attractive to me than the average age of 60-70 years. I really like to live, and I want to see a lot, try and learn a lot. A prerequisite for this is to be of sound mind and in good physical shape.

Why do people die so early, especially in our country? To some this will seem surprising, to others - banal, but in any case it needs to be understood: the main reason is that we are not aware of the responsibility for our health.

What most of us simply don't know is that the main factor affecting our health, well-being and life expectancy is the simple choices we make every day: what we eat, how we respond to stress, how active we are. Add here whether we take into account our predispositions and, in general, how well we know our own genetic portrait.

If we suspect that we make the wrong choice every day, we do not understand what exactly needs to be changed in order to avoid health problems. Meanwhile, according to the World Health Organization, annually in Russia more than 80% of deaths occur due to cardiovascular diseases, cancer, respiratory diseases, and all of them are caused primarily by lifestyle.

According to the authors of this book, avoiding deadly diseases and doubling life expectancy is easy enough. In this book, they talk about what modern science knows about the aging process and the occurrence of chronic diseases. And about how - armed with this knowledge and the latest technologies - you can easily and effectively adjust your life and health: reduce or eliminate the risks of developing diseases, slow down the aging process, and in some cases stop it and even reverse it.

The authors do not just theorize: Ray Kurzweil is an inventor, a futurist scientist, Terry Grossman is an MD, founder of the longevity clinic. They are at the forefront of science, they are direct participants in information, scientific, and medical progress.

Unfortunately, most representatives of traditional medicine refuse to apply modern knowledge and advances in technology in treatment. That is why, in order to get the maximum benefit from the latest medical discoveries that are quite accessible today, each of us must independently monitor our own health and be, in a sense, a doctor for ourselves.

The advice of Ray and Terry made me radically change my attitude towards my body and health. A few years ago, a book by Transcend gave me the impetus to get serious about studying and then promoting a healthy lifestyle. All this was embodied in the launch of my blog Live up! on the pages of which I recommend this book to readers and often refer to its authors.

Their functional approach to diagnosing health conditions impressed me and my husband so much that we got to know Terry Grossman, and my husband became his client.

I am very glad that thanks to the efforts of the co-founder of PROFI.RU Yegor Rudy, one of those whose lives this book has changed, it has now become available in Russian. The last thing we want is for you to treat this book as just another book about healthy eating and exercise. This book is much more.

Foreword

Until very recently, health care and medicine developed at random. We made discoveries without clearly understanding the principles of work. We know that this substance lowers blood pressure, but we have no idea why. We often "discovered" drugs with the necessary spectrum of action, in addition to getting a lot of serious side effects, but were not able to create drugs that exactly met our needs.

For example, in the mid-1980s, Pfitzer developed a new type of drug called Sildenafil. It blocked an enzyme that helps regulate arterial blood flow. It was hoped that blocking this enzyme would dilate the arteries and lower blood pressure. Sildenafil has passed all stages of testing up to clinical trials in humans, but its effectiveness was not enough to be released to the market. The researchers informed all patients of the completion of the trial and asked for the return of the provided samples.

Almost all women responded to the request - in contrast to a significant part of the men participating in the study. Follow-up phone interviews revealed that these men experienced a completely unexpected side effect. Today you probably know Sildenafil under the brand name Viagra. The developers of Viagra did not try to invent a cure for impotence: they wanted to create a popular blood pressure remedy, but they were lucky to invent an incredibly popular drug that brought in billions of dollars in revenue.

Medical discoveries that happen by chance, at random, are a typical phenomenon. But today the situation is changing quite quickly. The completion of the Human Genome Project just a few years ago and the recent discovery of the mechanisms that make it possible to change the way genes work in adults has moved us from an old paradigm where progress in health and medicine was unpredictable to a new one in which healthcare is an information technology. . Ray wrote in detail in his works that the key characteristic of information technology is its rapid, exponential development.

There are some books that make you run to buy a few more copies for the people you care about the most. "Transcend: Nine Steps to Eternal Life" one of those books.

First English edition "Transcend: Nine Steps to Living Well Forever" came out in December 2010 and has since been a top physiology book on Amazon.com. In August 2015, Mann, Ivanov and Ferber published a Russian-language version of the book. It is already available in bookstores and on the publisher's website.

To be honest, the title of the book and the first pages persistently evoked associations in my mind with the New Vasyuks from The Twelve Chairs and the films Mr. Nobody and Lucy. And all because one of the authors - Raymond Kurzweil - a famous futurist and inventor, author of several popular science books on futurology and theory of mind. His belief that artificial intelligence will soon surpass human is scary, so I didn’t really like the dialogue with Ray and Terry’s avatars from the future, as well as fantasies about “we are in 2034”.

To my delight, Kurzweil's co-author was Terry Grossman - Founder and director of the Grossman Wellness Center in Colorado, author of numerous scientific articles in medical journals. Grossman worked as a family physician for over 15 years in his staff, researching nutritional supplements and anti-aging methods. Thanks to this union, an interesting mix of science fiction and a practical guide to maintaining health and youth has turned out.

What is this book about.

"Transcend" to some extent echoes the already bestsellers and Colin Campbell, but goes beyond nutrition. The book deals with literally all systems of the human body and factors affecting health. It turned out to be a kind of short guide to maintaining your health in the best possible way.

As in most of these books, the main idea is that no one except the person himself can affect his health, which is logical. Modern medicine is aimed at treatment, not prevention. We go to the doctor with complaints, but not in full health and with a desire to discuss how to maintain and increase this health. A rare doctor, interested in hereditary diseases, collecting an anamnesis will tell you how to avoid them. However, it is possible.

“Pilots periodically test every system on an aircraft before takeoff. This is important because people's lives are at stake and they don't want to make a single mistake. When a doctor examines a patient, he does not always use a checklist. That is, sometimes it works with such cards, and sometimes not. Sometimes it checks the entire list, sometimes it doesn't. Here, too, people's lives are at stake - so what's the difference? If you look at it, the difference is that the pilot is on the plane with his passengers. If he forgets to check something and the plane crashes, he will die too. If the doctor makes a mistake and forgets to check something, only the patient will suffer. It may seem cynical, but if the life of the doctor were at stake along with the life of the patient, then the doctor would be guaranteed to be more careful.

Scientists have proven that lifestyle changes not only affect our health, but also change our genes.

“Most genes show themselves as tendencies or probabilities. Of course, some, such as the genes for cystic fibrosis and Huntington's disease, blue eyes and blond hair almost certainly determine the fate of a person, but these are exceptions. Such genes represent a negligible fraction of the millions of variants possible in the human genome, so it is thought best to think of genes as probabilities. However, we can influence and change these trends by making choices about our lifestyle every day, such as food and nutritional supplements. Making the right lifestyle decisions is the foundation of your individual health and wellness program, and we refer to these behaviors as “reprogramming your biochemistry.”

The main difference between Transcend and other health books is that the authors do not just suggest thinking positively, resting more and eating more vegetables, they describe in great detail and in an accessible way exactly what chemical and physiological processes take place in the body, how our everyday choices affect on our health, what tests, examinations and at what age it is necessary to undergo.

Where to begin.

First of all, the authors recommend undergoing a series of examinations in order to detect all the weaknesses of your body, to compile a list of "family" diseases that are inherited. Assess your physical level and activity, stress level and type of reaction to it, your diet and sleep patterns.

To have complete information about the state of your body, Transcend offers free online programs that allow you to keep records of many different health data, such as Health-Vault from Microsoft.

BJU. There is to live.

In terms of nutrition, the authors recommend organizing your diet so that 33-40% of calories come from carbohydrates with a low glycemic index, i.e. if possible, exclude starchy vegetables (potatoes, corn, etc.), bread, pastries, pasta, sweets, soft drinks, etc., reduce the consumption of cereals, legumes and fruit juices.

The main source of carbohydrates should be vegetables with a low starch content, such as cabbage of all kinds, broccoli, mustard leaves, chard, spinach, lettuce, peppers of all colors, pak choi, green peas, celery, zucchini, cucumbers, etc., raw or after minimal heat treatment.

Most of your calories from fat should come from sources of healthy omega-3 fats, such as fish and fish oils, as well as extra virgin olive oil, avocados, and nuts. Saturated fat should account for no more than 7% of all calories. It is best to avoid fatty meats and whole dairy products such as butter, cream, ice cream and cheese. When choosing dairy products, give preference not to low-fat products, but to products with a low fat content, they cause not such sharp fluctuations in sugar and insulin in the blood. Avoiding trans fats is a must. Usually these are all ready-made products in supermarkets and fast food restaurants.

Proteins should also be a significant part of the diet. Vegetable proteins such as soy products and other legumes, nuts and whole grains are most preferred. Among animal proteins, it is better to give preference to fish. However, remember that about 30 g of protein is absorbed at one time, and everything that is over will turn into fat and will be stored by the body in this form. Therefore, if you need to reduce your carbohydrate intake and you can not eat too much protein, the only alternative is to eat more fat, of course good :)

The Overcoming Food Pyramid by Ray Kurzweil and Terry Grossman

Kurzweil and Grossman recommend leveling all the flaws in nutrition by taking food supplements. Which ones - read in "Transcend"

Alcohol. The good news is you can drink!

Recent studies have shown that moderate alcohol intake has some health benefits. It turns out that people who take it in moderation are not only healthier, but also live longer than convinced teetotalers. This is great news for me, I like to drink a glass of red wine at dinner.
Men under 65 are recommended to consume up to two servings per day; men over 65 years of age and women regardless of age - one serving per day. One serving is 350 ml of beer, or 150 ml of wine, or 40 ml of spirits.

Physical education for the mind and body.

Physical activity also has a significant impact on health, and it's not just about burning the calories you eat. Sports activities affect literally all systems of the body - the production of sex hormones, the functioning of the digestive and nervous systems, etc. Physical activity should consist of aerobic, strength and flexibility training.

By the way, not only the body needs charging. Exercising the brain is also important. Without solving tasks that require mental effort, the brain stops creating new neural connections, loses organization and, ultimately, efficiency. Read books, do crossword puzzles, etc.

MAKE LOVE TO LIVE LONGER

Regular orgasm plays an important role in maintaining health and well-being and helps you live longer.

In a four-year study published by the prestigious British Medical Journal, researchers found that men who had the most orgasms per year were half as likely to die from heart attacks and other causes compared to less sexually active men. But not only men benefit from sex, it has been proven that regardless of gender, regular sex can help reduce stress levels and strengthen immunity.

In general, there is so much interesting information in the book that I want to quote literally everything. And according to the descriptions of the processes of formation of new neural connections in the brain, unstable cholesterol plaques in the arteries and hemoglobin glycation, one can make an excellent macro-film.

How to manage stress, what modern methods of early diagnosis of degenerative diseases exist, at what level is genetic engineering and what are its development prospects, what advanced methods for diagnosing diseases at the gene level are already available, what are they silent about and how are food manufacturers misleading when placing information on the package. Why are safe herbal dietary supplements not advertised? What is the difference between natural and synthetic hormonal drugs. Which methods of treating heart diseases are effective, and which are a waste of money. You will find all this in Transcend: Nine Steps to Eternal Life.

You can buy the book in my favorite online store Labyrinth or on the website of the MIF publishing house.

In contact with

Ray Kurzweil

Terry Grossman

TRANSCEND

NINE STEPS TO LIVING WELL FOREVER

Published with permission from Loretta Barrett Books and Synopsis Literary Agency

Thank you for helping us publish ABBYY Language Services

Scientific editor Nadezhda Nikolskaya

The information in this book should be used as a supplement to, but not a substitute for, proper exercise.

Legal support for the publishing house is provided by Vegas Lex law firm.

* * *

Dedicated to Sonya, Ethan and Amy who inspire me to live forever.

Dedicated to Karen... forever.

From a publishing partner

It sounds incredible, but before my eyes, the simple advice of the authors of this book gave a few extra years of life to a large number of people!

Unfortunately, in terms of life expectancy, Russians lag behind residents of other countries by decades. For example, in France, men live an average of 15, and women - 10 years longer than ours.

Their functional approach to diagnosing health conditions impressed me and my husband so much that we got to know Terry Grossman, and my husband became his client.

Julia Korneva, author of the blog about a healthy lifestyle Live up!

Foreword

And we are already reaping the fruits of this new knowledge. Today, we have the tools to dramatically reduce our risk of being hit by the major killer diseases of cancer and heart disease, and to significantly slow down aging.

Unfortunately, many practitioners of traditional medicine are stuck in the old paradigm and still treat as if medicine had not become information technology. This means that in order to get the most benefit from the latest medical knowledge available today, you will have to take care of your health on your own, in a sense becoming your own doctor. There is no one else to rely on - even doctors, although they can provide tangible help.

The purpose of this book is to explain how, right now, you can begin to take full advantage of available medical information in order to reduce the risks of various diseases to zero and radically slow down the aging of the body.

Reader:“Sounds good, but tell me this: how long will I live if I do everything you say?”

Ray:“It is important to understand that we are dealing with unlimited possibilities. Every year new important knowledge appears and new scientific discoveries are made. It's happening faster and faster."

Reader:“Okay, but if I listen to your advice and do exactly what is described in this book, how many years will this add to me?”

Terry:“A lot depends on how things are going for you personally. For example, if you are genetically predisposed to heart attacks, but following our recommendations, the risk of having a heart attack is reduced by 95% - we believe this is possible. So the answer to the question is: you will live 20 years longer.”

Reader:"20 years sounds impressive."

Ray:“Oh wait. Later we will tell you that after living these 20 years, you will find yourself in a future where fundamentally new technologies will be available that can literally change your genes. Today, more than a thousand drugs based on these technologies are being developed. And it can extend your life for another couple of decades.”

Reader:“Now it looks like I can live 40 more years.”

Ray:"Right. So you will live until the middle of the century. And that's more than enough to fuel new developments, such as microscopic devices that can move around in your bloodstream and manage your health from the inside - at the cellular level. This technology will give you many more years.”

Reader:"Okay, now I'm starting to understand what it's all about."

Ray:"Fine. The emergence of new developments in one period of time makes it possible to survive until the next. As new advances emerge with increasing frequency, we believe that in less than 20 years, life expectancy will increase by more than a year each year.”

Reader:"The average life expectancy of a newborn?"

Terry:"No, the duration of your personal life."

Reader:“It appears that we are living at a turning point.”

Terry:"Well said! Of course, there are no guarantees. Tomorrow you may be struck by lightning, but we are close to the moment when the sand of time in your personal hourglass will change direction.”

Reader:"But I don't feel like being a 95-year-old for decades or even centuries."

Ray:“And that's not what we mean. In this book, we will tell you how you can slow down aging today. As a result, you will remain young until much better knowledge and technology emerges that can stop and even reverse aging. So it's about endless youth and life."

Exponential Growth of Information Technology

In 1964, when Terry began studying physics at Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts, there were no computers for students. A few miles away, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, the situation was different. MIT was such an advanced institution that in 1965, when Ray entered his first year there, they already had their own computer. That is why Ray went there to study. That computer (IBM 7094) cost $11 million (at today's exchange rate), occupied a significant portion of the building, and was used by professors and thousands of students. Today, your cell phone computer is a million times smaller, a million times cheaper, and a thousand times more powerful. The price/performance ratio has increased by a billion times. Already now possessing powerful and serious information technologies, in the next 25 years we will witness the next leap in development, as a result of which the productivity of technology will increase millions of times without additional investments. By the way, the last such leap was made in 40 years: all because the rate of exponential growth itself is increasing.

Another important point: this amazing exponential growth is not only observed in the field of computing and communications. More recently, it has begun in relation to human biology. For example, consider the Human Genome Project. When its launch was announced in 1990, it caused a lot of controversy. Skeptics, and they turned out to be the majority, referred to the fact that, having the most modern equipment and the best specialists, in 1989 only one ten thousandth of the genome was deciphered. The project was designed for 15 years. Seven and a half years after the start of the project, skeptics were not going to give up, pointing out that half the way had already been passed, and only one hundredth of the genome had been deciphered.

In fact, the decryption went strictly according to plan - exponentially. The first graph below illustrates that doubling one percent seven times will give you 100%. This is exactly what happened: the project was completed not only on time, but also ahead of schedule. The second graph shows how the cost of sequencing a single base pair of DNA dropped a million-fold, from $10 in 1990 to 0.001 cents in 2008.

Since 1990, the amount of genetic data collected has doubled every year. Since the completion of the Human Genome Project in 2003 to the present, this pace has been maintained. Each year, the cost of sequencing a single base pair of DNA—the building blocks of our genes—has been halved.

Data growth sequence in the genome bank

The cost of sequencing genomes

Deciphering the first human genome cost $1,000,000,000. Today, anyone can do it for $350,000. But if you still can't afford it, wait a bit. Only a few years separate us from the moment when the decoding of the human genome will cost $1,000. The annual doubling of the rate of information development is characteristic of almost every aspect of our understanding of biology.

Our genes are, in essence, little computer programs designed in conditions unlike today. Consider, for example, the gene for the insulin receptor in adipose tissue, which actually says, "Hold on to every calorie, because fortune might turn its back on you next hunting season." This gene served its purpose tens of thousands of years ago, in conditions of constant food shortages and the absence of refrigerators. In those days, starvation was common, and death from malnutrition was real, so storing as many calories as possible and storing them in your fat cells was a great idea.

These days, the presence of this gene in adipose tissue has created an epidemic of weight problems. Today, two out of three American adults are overweight and one in three are obese. What would happen if we suddenly turned off this gene in all fat cells? At the Joslin Diabetes Center, a similar experiment was carried out on mice. Animals with a disabled insulin gene ate as much as they wanted, while remaining slim. And it was not painful thinness. They did not suffer from diabetes or cardiovascular disease and lived on average 20% longer than mice from the control group, in which this gene continued to function. Experimental mice experienced the benefits of dietary calorie restriction, the only scientifically proven way to extend life. At the same time, they did the opposite: they ate as much as they wanted. Several pharmaceutical companies are already rushing to bring this idea to market.

Consider how often you update software on your computer. And the software of our bodies - the genetic code - has not been updated for thousands of years. The insulin receptor gene in adipose tissue is just one of many that were more useful in the stone age than in the computer age. We are constantly working on updating software for the human body. Almost simultaneously with the completion of the assembly of the human genome in 2003, work on the study of RNA interference was completed. This technology allows you to permanently turn off certain genes in adulthood. Remarkably, just a few years later, the authors of the study received the Nobel Prize for it. There are already new forms of gene therapy that allow new genes to be introduced into the body. It turns out that we not only found the program code underlying human life, but also got the opportunity to change it.

We also have access to computer simulation of biological processes. This means that it is possible to test new drugs and treatments on computer models, which significantly speeds up the process compared to animal and human trials. Every year, the power of such computer simulation tools doubles. Today we can see with unprecedented precision what is happening in the depths of our brain and body. Every year the resolution of scanning technologies doubles, providing fundamentally new opportunities for the study of diseases (such as heart disease).

In the past, drug discovery was referred to as drug discovery. In fact, we were looking for substances that would give a visible positive effect. In the same way, primitive people created tools by simply picking them up from the ground: “Oh, here lies a useful stone. It will make a good hammer." In those days, people did not know how to give tools the desired shape, later they learned to invent and create tools for solving specific problems. Today, for the first time in history, we can do the same for medicinal purposes. New drugs are already being developed in smarter ways than trying to rely on luck, as is the case with Viagra. We can now create molecules to perform specific tasks, such as turning off an enzyme that causes a disease, or making proteins that can fight a disease. In the following, we will take a closer look at these developments.

Today, healthcare and medicine are truly information technologies, which means that new horizons are opening up before us. It follows that the power of health technology is doubling every year—what Ray calls the law of accelerating returns on investment. This means that in the next 10 years we will get a thousand times, and in another 10 years - a million times more opportunities to understand, model, imitate and reprogram information processes that trigger the mechanisms of disease and aging. According to Ray's models, the size of technology is shrinking at the same exponential rate—about 100 times per decade. Thus, in 20 years, technology will be 10,000 times more compact than it is now.

The most amazing thing is that the first fruits of this biotechnological revolution are already available to us. Judging by recent discoveries in genetics, medical scanning, and biological modeling, it is clear that many misconceptions about the mechanisms of disease have turned out to be deadly in the literal sense of the word (we will talk about this in more detail later). Many of these discoveries, such as the discovery of the mechanism of heart attack, were made very recently and formed the basis of the recommendations that we present in this book.

Your Path to Ultimate Health and Longevity

Aging is not a single process. It consists of about a dozen processes, each of which, over time, leads to the loss of physical, sensory and mental abilities. We will talk about how to radically slow down these processes, how to stop them or even reverse them. In this way, you will be able to maintain youth until the knowledge appears that makes it possible to become even younger.

Some of the aging processes are real diseases. For example, atherosclerosis, in which the arteries are filled with plaque of varying quality, both soft and hard (see Chapter 2). In addition to the fact that this disease leads to heart attacks and strokes, it personifies aging, since it affects not only the coronary and cerebral arteries.

We will also talk about one aging process that can be reversed right now. The membranes of all 10 trillion cells in the human body are composed primarily of a vital substance with the complex name "phosphatidylcholine" (PC). Thanks to its remarkable properties, PC allows cells to maintain structural integrity without affecting elasticity, ensures the supply of nutrients to cells, and also controls the elimination of toxins. 90% of the cell membrane of a ten year old child is made up of phosphatidylcholine. In the human body, PC is produced very slowly, and over the course of a lifetime, its reserves are gradually depleted. As a rule, the content of PC in the cell membrane of an elderly person is about 10%. Over time, the cell membrane is filled with solid fats and cholesterol, which cannot perform the functions of PC. It is for this reason that the skin of older people loses its elasticity, and the organs do not work as well as they used to.

You can reverse this process right now by taking Phosphatidylcholine as a dietary supplement. In addition to helping to maintain youthful skin, it will also improve the functioning of the body's organs. We will discuss this and many other ways to slow down and in some cases stop or reverse the processes that underlie aging.

The key to our recommendations will be an assessment of your personal health condition. What are your main health problems? Are you at high risk for cardiovascular disease? Are you in a high risk group for cancer? Is your body utilizing glucose efficiently? Do you have an overactive immune system? The answers to these questions play a fundamental role in the formation of a program that is optimal for you. To help you answer these questions, we will offer some simple tests (most of them you can do at home). We will also tell you how, based on the assessment of your health, you can immediately form your individual program.

And remember that we cannot be in the future we have described instantly. This will require countless steps to be taken. But now your steps are getting faster, thanks to the fact that healthcare has become an information technology with a characteristic exponential pace of development.

When the manuscript was almost finished, we were very lucky: from time to time, our avatars began to appear from the future with stories about what an amazing world awaits everyone. Ray2023 and Terry2023 they will talk about technologies that will be available in 2023: about methods of treatment with stem cells, bionic organs and prostheses, about organ cloning. Thanks to genomics, by 2023 we will be able to see the genetic structure more clearly, as a result, high-precision therapies will allow us to treat and prevent diseases with much greater accuracy, based on the individual characteristics of each individual patient. The development of such therapies is just beginning, but due to the accelerated exponential pace of technology development, they will become fully fledged in the near future. As noted earlier, the annual doubling of information technology capacities will lead to the fact that in ten years they will increase by 1000 times, and in 20 years - by 1,000,000.

By 2034, nanotechnology will begin to have a serious impact on life, changing all aspects of life. Ray2034 and Terry2034 will help explain how, with the help of nanotechnology, we can control matter at the atomic level, creating almost any necessary materials and forms in a short time and without much cost. Today, there are already projects for the development of submicroscopic nanobiotic robots, or nanorobots, and soon there will be a scientific and technical basis for their creation. Experiments with the introduction of nanoengineered devices the size of a blood cell into the bloodstream of animals for therapeutic purposes turned out to be successful. In one such study, a similar device was used to treat type 1 diabetes in rats. In 20 years, tiny nanorobots will be circulating in our bloodstreams, performing the same functions as our own cells and tissues, only with much greater accuracy and reliability. Our avatars from the future will talk about how nanobiotic erythrocytes (red blood cells) will deliver oxygen to our tissues faster and more efficiently than our own; nanobiotic leukocytes (white blood cells) will be able to extremely accurately and completely destroy foreign substances, and nanobiotic thrombophages - to regulate blood clotting.

When talking about the three steps to radical life extension, we often use the comparison with three bridges. Our book will be your guide on your journey through First bridge. The first bridge is all you can do right now to slow down, and in many cases stop, the processes that lead to disease and aging. We will tell you how, based on the unique characteristics of the body and brain, you can create your own healing method. On the First Bridge you will cross a moving barrier, because our knowledge of biology and ways to go beyond its borders is increasing exponentially.

The first bridge will lead to Second, and we will find ourselves at the epicenter of the biotechnological revolution. In about 20 years, we will be able to improve our own bodies by completely reprogramming the information processes taking place in them. We will indeed be able to change our genes in order to live, say, a few decades longer than today's centenarians. Thus we will come to Third bridge, where the nanotechnological revolution awaits us: enjoying its fruits, we will overcome the limitations of our own bodies and live forever.

Ray and Terry 2023:"Now is the time for us to introduce ourselves."

Reader:"What do you mean?"

Ray and Terry 2023:"We are avatars of ourselves from the future."

Reader:"Hmm, and with what wonder technology are you two talking to me from the future?"

Ray2023:“It's actually old technology. It's called "poetic liberty."

Reader:"Understandably. You look like you normally do. Haven't aged much in the last 15 years."

Terry2023:“Exactly. We are now in our 70s, but thanks to a major breakthrough in anti-aging medicine that occurred in the first quarter of the 21st century, we are holding up well.”

Ray2034:“And you will be happy to know that we are in great shape in 2034, and we are already over 90. If you use your grandfather’s ways of maintaining health for some time, then you have a chance to meet the 2030s young ".

Reader:“Well, well, there are four of you already! But your 90-year-old avatars look even younger than 75-year-olds."

Terry2034:“This is because the best achievement of the early 2020s was the ability to slow down aging. Now we can reverse it."

Reader:“I like your clothes. Where is she from?"

Ray2023:“It was made to order in an online store. Now almost everyone does it. Scan your body and then dress your 3D avatar in whatever style, fabric and color you want in a fully immersive virtual environment. If you like the clothes on the avatar, order them to be sewn - automated seamstresses will quickly complete your order.”

Reader:"No offense, but I meant your avatars' clothes from 2034."

Ray2034:“Today, we create clothes – like almost everything else – with desktop nanomolecular machines at home. Thanks to nanofibers, clothes repel dirt and prevent bacteria from multiplying, so they are always clean and fresh.”

Reader:“Great news – there are no more laundries in the future.”

Terry2023:"That's right, and now is the time to talk a little about the medicine of the future."

Reader:“I am sure that the diagnosis of diseases in the early stages has advanced a lot.”

Ray2023:"Very far! Even in your day, it was possible to diagnose many diseases at an earlier stage, but with your outdated diagnostic and imaging systems, it cost crazy money. Another obstacle was your inefficient health insurance system.”

Terry2023:“Today, there are improved stem cell therapies without the use of embryonic stem cells. We can turn skin cells into pluripotent stem cells.”

Reader:"Polypotent?"

Terry2023:“Pluripotent stem cells can become cells of any tissue in the body. If you have heart damage, for example, you can create new heart cells with your DNA. If you have type 1 diabetes, you can create new cells in the islet of Langerhans (a structure in the pancreas that produces insulin). In this way it is possible to renew all the organs of your body.”

Ray2023:“We also managed to find cancer stem cells that cause cancerous tumors. Today, there are effective treatments for almost all forms of cancer.”

Terry2023:“In the context of cardiovascular disease, with next-generation imaging devices, doctors can find even the smallest cholesterol deposits (plaques) in the arteries of the heart or brain. Tiny robots that travel through these arteries are equipped with a laser attachment that turns small plaques into steam, preventing them from growing. Heart attacks - the leading cause of death these days - are now a rarity."

Ray2023:“Today, the biotech revolution is in full bloom. In your day, medicine has evolved at random. Medicines were not developed, but found. In fact, it was just a search for substances that would perform the necessary functions, sometimes with serious side effects. But in your time, there were also several breakthroughs in medicine that turned it into information technology. The mapping of the human genome was completed in 2003: this is how we got the programming code of human life (the genetic code). At the same time, technologies for changing genes began to appear: RNA interference to turn off genes and new forms of gene therapy to introduce new ones. Computer-aided development of innovative therapies and their testing in increasingly complex biological models has become possible. One of my thesis postulates that about once a year the power of information technology doubles at no additional cost. Therefore, today, in 2023, information technology used in medicine is about 30,000 times more powerful than it was in your time.”

Reader:"Looks like you've perfected biology."

Ray2023:“Yes, we are working on it. However, it is clear that even if we reprogram outdated software that a person inherited thousands of years ago, the capabilities of the human body will invariably yield to the capabilities that nanotechnology opens up.”

Terry2034:“Indeed, today we have stepped far beyond the possibilities provided by the reprogramming of the human body. We have nanorobots, devices the size of a blood cell that patrol the blood vessels. They can remove plaque from the arteries if their size is no more than a few molecules. So these days, the arteries of 90-year-olds are as clear as those of children. In addition, nanorobots find and destroy harmful viruses, bacteria, prions and cancer cells before they can cause harm.”

Reader:"Looks like it's worth the wait."

Ray and Terry:"The way it is. But waiting alone is not enough, as disease and aging work throughout our lives. We need to face the future in good shape."

Reader:"Yes, I would just live to see it."

Ray and Terry:“Our book is about just that. We will tell you what you need to do in order to live long enough - for the sake of the future eternal life!

Sequencing of proteins, DNA and RNA - determination of their amino acid or nucleotide sequence. The result is a formal description of the primary structure of a linear macromolecule in the form of a sequence of monomers in text form.

Portal for the student. Self-training

About Transcend: Nine Steps to Eternal Life by Ray Kurzweil and Terry Grossman

What is this book about.

Where to begin.

BJU. There is to live.

Alcohol. The good news is you can drink!

Physical education for the mind and body.

MAKE LOVE TO LIVE LONGER

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From a publishing partner

Foreword

Exponential Growth of Information Technology

Your Path to Ultimate Health and Longevity

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