July 23 2008 / by futuretalk
Category: Other Year: General Rating: 6 Hot
By Dick Pelletier
In just ten short years, you may be looking into the mirror and
wondering, “Who is that gorgeous creature?” Your reflection would
reveal a much younger and healthier you; with natural hair color,
youthful skin, perfect vision, real teeth, a spring in your step,
and an incredibly sharp mind and memory. 
Welcome to tomorrow’s futuristic world of biotech enhancements,
which forward thinkers believe will be widely available and
affordable by 2018. According to venture capitalists, the next ten
years will be driven by lightening-fast complex medical
breakthroughs that promise to improve health, extend lives; even
redefine what it means to be human.
The Institute for Global Future’s Dr. James Canton believes a
trillion dollar health enhancement market will evolve in the next
decade. And 100 million baby boomers and senior citizens are
anxiously awaiting its products; which one day will include biotech
and nanotech miracles to replace aging organs, muscles, bones and
skin.
Some health enhancements are already available today. Fertility
science, prosthetic limbs, wonder drugs like Prozac and Viagra;
even steroid use, are all designed to improve human performance.
Last year, 12 million opted for plastic surgery in their quest to
look and feel better, giving the cosmetics industry its largest
success ever.
But over the next ten years, stem cell and gene therapies,
initially developed to cure sicknesses, will dwarf what can be
accomplished with the knife. These new therapies promise far less
intrusive means to achieve that “younger body” look. And ‘boomers
and seniors can’t wait to take advantage of these breakthrough
technologies.
Enhancements fall into three categories: Therapeutic,
Augmentation, and Designed Evolution.
Therapeutic refers to restoring normal capabilities to disabled
or dysfunctional patients. Cloning for tissue replacement is
already happening, as stem cells have successfully grown new heart
tissues in patients. Researchers believe replacing muscle, bone,
skin; even neurons, teeth, eyes, and other organs could be in
beginning stages by 2018.
Augmentation means enhancing performance levels beyond the norm.
Procedures expected to be in place by as early as 2015 include
improved memory recall, simultaneous language translation, long
range and microscopic vision on demand, wide spectrum hearing,
distinctive voice projection, and stronger muscles. And by
mid-to-late-2020s, “nanobots” monitoring each of our cells could
keep us ageless and forever healthy.
Designed Evolution refers to modifying our children prior to
conception and after birth. These could include memory,
intelligence, speed, agility, and other behavioral and physical
attributes. Eliminating undesired genes that might pre-dispose a
child to cancer, heart disease or alcoholism could be possible by
about 2015.
However, thoughts of improving humans beyond what some consider
“natural” will evoke controversy. Ideology, politics and religion
could collide with science as many of these experiments, driven by
overwhelming public demand, begin to take place. Sparks will surely
fly as we endow our offspring and ourselves with bodies that resist
degeneration, bones that replenish through self-assembly, minds
that think like geniuses, and a lifespan approaching
immortality.
But regardless of these controversies, demand from ‘boomers and
seniors who believe that they deserve improved health, more
happiness, and longer lives, will drive this “magical future”
forward – and it could become reality in time to benefit most
people alive today.
This article will appear in various print media and blogs;
comments welcome. See other published work by Dick at
http://www.positivefuturist.com and click on the “published work”
tab.
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