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Friday, January 19, 2018

The Future: Immortal Godlike Mice Slobs


I spend a lot of time staring at the wall contemplating the future.  Not as in 'what should I have for lunch', but as in 'what will humanity be doing in a hundred years'.  Story ideas are lining up inside my head, waiting their turn to get out, and sometimes they try to grab my attention by suggesting something weird.

Here's something that was making the rounds on The Internets a little while ago:

  >  Developmental drug shrinks fat cells without suppressing appetite
  >  Galveston researchers develop drug that shrinks fat ... in mice
          (links open in new windows, for no particular reason)

The gist of it (or, more accurately, what I've decided the gist of it is) is that some researchers have developed a drug that reduces fat regardless of the subject's diet.  At the moment, it only works in mice.  So presumably, laboratory mice are able to stay slim despite a diet of tiny little cheeseburgers.



Like I said, the articles did point out that this only works on mice.  There didn't seem to be any mention of what would happen if a human tried taking the drug.  Maybe, if a human took the drug, nearby mice would become slimmer.  We should conduct tests.

Where could things go from there?

Suppose the drug could be made to work on humans.  We would have a generation of people who remain slim despite eating whatever they want.  There's no need to promote healthy eating any more, if we could just take a pill to mitigate the consequences.

What else is possible?  Since we're thinking about the future, why stop there?  Doing cardio and other exercise has effects on the body; what if a drug was developed that provided the same effects?  An hour of exercise, in pill form?    How about something that reduces the effects of aging?  Is that possible?

  >  Scientists reveal a giant leap of anti-aging
          (link opens in a new window on someone else's computer)

So there's one possible future:  an entire generation living and eating like slobs, and being slim and fit despite it all.  All of them living to be 120 without even trying.

But the mice get to do it first.

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