Fantastic Voyage (Kurzweil)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Fantastic Voyage: Live Long Enough to Live Forever (Rodale Books, ISBN 1-57954-954-3), published in 2004, is a book authored by Ray Kurzweil and Terry Grossman. The basic premise of the book is that if middle aged people can live long enough, until approximately 120, they will be able to live forever -- as we overcome all diseases and old age itself. This might also be considered a break-even scenario where developments made during a year increase life expectancy by more than one year.

The book focuses primarily on health topics such as heart disease, cancer, and type 2 diabetes. It promotes lifestyle changes such as a low glycemic index diet, exercise, drinking green tea and alkalinized water, and other changes to daily living. They also promote aggressive supplementation to make up for nutrient deficiencies they believe are common in Western society.

The book states that the purpose of these changes is to obtain and maintain idyllic health so that an individual can extend their life as long as possible. The authors believe that within the next 20 to 50 years technology will advance to the point where much of the aging process will be conquered, and degenerative diseases eliminated. The book is peppered with side notes on these futuristic topics, showing how current research is leading us toward life extension, and explaining how future technologies such as nanotechnology and bioengineering might change the way humans live their lives. Ray Kurzweil discusses these topics at further length in his 2005 book The Singularity Is Near.

[edit] See also

Some claims in the book have been called pseudoscience. Dr.Stephen Lower,retired Prof. of Chemistry at Simon Fraser University disputes some of the book's statements about alkaline water on his web site. http://www.chem1.com/CQ/ionbunk.html