经济学人 | 长生不老的那一天：Cheating death

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死亡的阴影从出生开始就伴随着每一个人，谁能不能逃脱。但从古至今，人类都没有放弃对长寿的追求。在小说中，我们常常看到长生不老的例子。我大天朝最有名的恐怕就是唐僧肉了；而国外，哈利波特中，传说拥有三个死亡圣器的人，就是死神的主人。但这些都是幻想，那么现在的医学科学是否发展到能够真的增加人的寿命呢？增加了人的寿命之后对社会会产生怎样的影响呢？这篇文章或许能够给我们一个答案~

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Cheating death

Science is getting to grips with ways to slow ageing. Rejoice, as long as the side-effects can be managed.

grip：握力; 紧握；吸引住：吸引…的兴趣或注意力; 例句，She gripped the rope.她紧紧抓住绳索。

Side-effects：副作用

get to grips with：表示认真处理某件事情，努力对付~，例句：The US government is having trouble getting to grips with the gun problem。美国政府在努力应对枪支问题上遇到了困难

Rejoice：意为欢欣，意思是这件事情是值得开心的

科学界正逐渐掌握延缓衰老的方法，只要副作用能被控制，这真让人高兴。

Imagine a world in which getting fitted with a new heart, liver or set of kidneys, all grown from your own body cells, was as commonplace as knee and hip replacements are now. Or one in which you celebrated your 94th birthday by running a marathon with your school friends. Imagine, in other words, a world in which ageing had been abolished.

liver：肝脏

Kidney：肾脏

Commonplace：平凡的，常见的

Hip：髋关节

试想有这样一个世界，在那里人们能够换上有自身细胞培育而成的新的心脏、肝脏或者一对肾脏，就像是现在的髋关节和膝关节手术一样稀松平常。在这样的一个世界里，你也许会和自己的同学通过跑一场马拉松来庆祝94岁的生日。换句话说，也就是一个没有衰老的世界。

That world is not yet on offer. But a semblance of it might be one day. Senescence, the general dwindling of prowess experienced by all as time takes its toll, is coming under scrutiny from doctors and biologists (see article). Suspending it is not yet on the cards. But slowing it probably is. Average lifespans have risen a lot over the past century, but that was thanks to better food, housing, public health and some medicines. The new increase would be brought about by specific anti-senescence drugs, some of which may already exist.

on offer：意为提供，可找到的

Semblance：类似; 外表，外观; 假装;例句，At least a semblance of normality has been restored to parts of the country，该国的部分地区至少已经恢复了表面的常态

senescence：老朽，衰老; 老年期;[例句]It affects tuberization, leaf senescence, and dormancy.它影响块茎形成、叶子衰老和休眠

Dwindling：逐渐减少的;逐渐变少或变小(dwindle的现在分词)

takes its toll：伤亡，消逝，as time takes its toll，此处相当于as time goes by可以学习着替换使用

be on the cards：有可能

Lifespan：寿命

那个世界目前还可望不可及，但是与其类似的情形可能会出现。人体机能总会在时间流逝中衰退，衰老人人难逃，医学和生物学家正在仔细研究这一现象。暂停衰老尚无可能，但延缓衰老还是有希望的。过去的一百年中，人类的平均寿命已经大幅延长了。这是因为饮食、住房、公共医疗的改善以及药物的作用。新的寿命提升可能是通过一些抗衰老的药物带来的。一些也许已经研发出来了。

This, optimists claim, will extend life for many people to today’s ceiling of 120 or so. But it may be just the beginning. In the next phase not just average lifespans but maximum lifespans will rise. If a body part wears out, it will be repaired or replaced altogether. DNA will be optimized for long life. Add in anti-ageing drugs, and centenarians will become two a penny.

optimistic ：乐观的，乐观主义的

Ceiling：天花板; 最高限度; 云幕高度; 隔板，舱室垫板；例句，The rooms were spacious, with tall windows and high ceilings，房间很宽敞，窗户和天花板都很高

Centenarian：百岁或逾百岁以上的（人），百岁老人（的）

two a penny：俚语，意为廉价供应，不值钱的，多得很，例句，Qualifies staff are two a penny at the moment. 靠谱的员工现在那是相当多啊

乐观人士声称这能将许多人的寿命延长到今天的最高水平120岁，甚至更高。但这也许只是开始。下一个阶段不只平均寿命，最大寿命也会增加。如果器官坏了，可以修或者就直接换掉。DNA会被优化以至长寿。再加上药物的作用，满大街都是百岁老人

Man and superman

To this end, many hopeful repairmen are now setting up shop. Some of them want to upgrade worn-out tissues using stem cells (precursors to other sorts of cell). Such bio-renovation is the basis of an unproven, almost vampiric, treatment in vogue in some circles: transfusion into the old of the blood of the young (see article). The business of growing organs from scratch is also proceeding. At the moment, these “organoids” are small, imperfect and used mainly for drug testing. But that will surely change. Longevity is known to run in families, which suggests that particular varieties of genes prolong life. Some are investigating this, with the thought that modern gene-editing techniques might one day be used to make crucial, life-extending tweaks to the DNA of those who need them.

Tissue：[生] 组织；一套;例句，As we age we lose muscle tissue，肌肉组织会随着我们日趋衰老而萎缩。

Vampiric：（似）吸血鬼的；例句，The second is that stacking Vampiric Embrace from too many priests probably represents a balance problem.第二是过多的牧师的吸血鬼拥抱的叠加可能会带来平衡问题。

Transfusion：输血；渗透；倾注；例句，He contracted AIDS from a blood transfusion，他因为输血而感染了艾滋病。

organoid：类器官;器官状的；organ+oid构成，oid表示类，是…样子的。例句，Organoid culture of hepatocytes for bioartificial liver，用于生物人工肝的肝细胞组织化培养

from scratch：俚语，从零开始，白手起家

Longevity：长寿; 寿命；长期供职；

Prolong：延长，拉长；拖延，延期；

Tweak：捏; 拧；扭；苦恼；稍稍调整（机器、系统等）；

为了实现这一目的。很多人开始投入工作，“开店设厂”。一些人用干细胞来修复坏掉的组织。这种方法尚未经过验证，听起来像吸血鬼一样，因为其是将年轻人的血液输入老年人体内。从“零”开始种植器官也是一种方法。目前呢，这种类器官都比较小，不完备，主要用于药物测试。但这种情况会改变。众所周知，长寿可以遗传，那么肯定就会有基因控制。有些人正在对此进行研究，希望有朝一日可以用现代基因编辑技术对DNA做出关键性微调，帮助有需要的人延长寿命。

From an individual’s viewpoint, this all sounds very desirable. For society as a whole, though, it will have profound effects. Most of them will be good, but not all.

profound：深厚的; 意义深远的；严重的；知识渊博的；例句，The overwhelming feeling is just deep, profound shock and anger，最强烈的感觉就是深深的震惊和愤怒。

从个人的角度，听起来令人神往。对于全人类全社会，影响会更深远。其中大部分影响是好的，但不是全部。

One concern is that long life will exacerbate existing social and economic problems. The most immediate challenge will be access to anti-senescence treatment. If longer life is expensive, who gets it first? Already, income is one of the best predictors of lifespan. Widening the gap with treatments inaccessible to the poor might deepen divisions that are already straining democracies.

Exacerbate：激怒; 使恶化; 使加重;例句，Mr Powell-Taylor says that depopulation exacerbates the problem，鲍威尔-泰勒先生说人口的急剧减少使得该问题更加严重。

Straining：变形，应变;拉紧( strain的现在分词)；尽量利用；尽全力；过滤；例句，Today we are overpopulated, straining the earth's resources.现在我们人口过多，致使地球资源使用过度。

长寿使得的本来存在的的社会经济问题更加恶化。第一个挑战就是获取抗衰老治疗。如果长寿是昂贵的，谁能最先得到？收入就会成为寿命的最佳决定者。这会加深已经让民主国家很头疼的贫富分化。

Will older workers be discriminated against, as now, or will numbers give them the whip hand over the young? Will bosses cling on, stymying the careers of their underlings, or will they grow bored, quit and do something else entirely? And would all those old people cease to consider themselves elderly, retaining youthfully vigorous mental attitudes as well as physical ones—or instead make society more conservative (because old people tend to be)?

Stymy：妨碍球；从中作乱，完全妨碍；例句，So the researchers dosed lupus-mimicking mice with clopidogrel ( Plavix), a drug that stymies clotting by preventing platelets from activating，因此，研究人员给疑似狼疮的老鼠喂了氯吡格雷，这种药物可以通过阻止血小板的活性来防止凝血。

Underling：<贬>下属，走卒

vigorous：有力的；精力充沛的；充满活力的；朝气蓬勃的。

上年纪的员工会更加受歧视，像现在一样，还是慢慢老年人数量增加成为强势群体，结果年轻人受压榨？老板会一直占着位置，阻碍年轻人的发展，还是说转行在另一个领域追寻自己的第二春？那些老年人会不再认为自己老了，而是保持着年轻的活力，不论是身体素质或者是精神状态，还是相反的使社会更加保守（因为老年人就是那样）。

A reason for hoping that the elderly would turn out less hidebound is that life itself would be more a series of new beginnings than one single story. Mid-life crises might be not so much about recapturing lost youth as wondering how to make the most of the next half-century.

Hidebound：对新的思想、方法等格格不入的，守旧的，思想偏狭的；例句，The men are hidebound and reactionary，那些人顽固且反动。

Recapture：重温；重新捕获[夺回]；重新捕获; 再次体验

一个希望使得老年人不那么墨守成规理由就是，意识到生命本身更可能是一系列的开始，而不再是从头到尾一个故事。中年危机与其说是关于如何重新抓住逝去的青春，不如说是思考如何最大限度的利用好接下来的半个世纪。

Retirement would become a more distant option for most, since pension pots would have to be enormous to support their extended lifespans. To this end, the portfolio career would become the rule and education would have to change accordingly. People might go back to school in their 50s to learn how to do something completely different. The physical labourer would surely need a rest. The accountant might become a doctor. The lawyer, a charity worker. Perhaps some will take long breaks between careers and party wildly, in the knowledge that medicine can offer them running repairs.

pension pots：养老金

Portfolio：证券投资组合; 公文包; 代表作品集; 部长[大臣]的职位

Labourer：（尤指户外的）体力劳动者，劳工，工人；例句，He has worked as a labourer in factories and on building sites，他在工厂和建筑工地干过苦工。

如果人的寿命延长，那么退休就会更加遥遥无期，因为需要巨额养老金，才能支撑他们已经延长的寿命。为此，多种多样的职业生涯会变得司空见惯，另外教育也要作出调整。人们可能50岁时还会回到学校学一些完全不同的东西。体力劳动者可能需要休息，会计师可能成医生，律师可能回去做义工。有些人会给自己放长假，因为知道药物可以让他们延长寿命。

Boredom, and the need for variety, would alter family life, too. How many will tie the knot in their 20s in the expectation of being with the same person 80 years later? The one-partner life, already on the decline, could become rare, replaced by a series of relationships, each as long as what many today would consider a decent marital stretch. As for reproduction, men’s testes would presumably work indefinitely and, though women’s ovaries are believed to be loaded with a finite number of eggs, technology would surely be able to create new ones. Those who wished to could thus continue to procreate for decades. That, and serial marriage, will make it difficult to keep track of who is related to whom. Families will start to look more like labyrinthine networks. In the world where marriages do not last, women everywhere will be freer to divorce and aged patriarchs will finally lose their hold.

Boredom：厌倦；讨厌，令人讨厌的事物；无聊，无趣；例句，He had given up attending lectures out of sheer boredom，他不再去听那些讲座完全是出于厌倦。

knot：结，绳结，结节；把…打结，捆扎，包扎; 使密切结合; 使纠结; 这里意为永结同心

Teste：[词典][法] 终结部分；例句，When visitors to Los Angeles want a teste of Hollywood, they need only stop by The Grove.如果到洛杉矶的观光客想要领略好莱坞的风采，最好的方式就是逛一逛葛洛芙购物中心。

Testes：睾丸(testis的复数)；例句，The testes are lobed organs.精巢为叶状器官。

Ovaries：（妇女或雌性动物的）卵巢( ovary的名词复数)；（植物的）子房；

patriarch：家长，族长，元老，（特指）犹太民族的祖先；创始人，鼻祖。

厌倦，对多样化的需求，也会改变家庭。多少人20多岁时会希望接下来80年都和同一个人一直在一起？从一而终的人已经在减少，以后可能会更罕见。取而代之的将是一段段新的恋情，每段关系延续的时间和现在很多人认为的一段像样的婚姻那样长。关于繁衍后代的这个话题，男性睾丸被假设可以无期限的工作下去；虽然女性的卵巢被认为生产的卵子的数量是固定的，但是相信科技一定可以创造出更多的卵子。那些希望繁衍几十年的人也许可以如愿。那样，加上连串的婚姻，会使得很难区分谁与谁相关。家庭会开始像迷宫网络一般。世界上婚姻不再持续，各地的女人会更容易离婚，老年人最终会失去他们的支撑。

Such speculation is fun, and mostly optimistic. The promise of a longer life, well lived, would round a person out. But this vision of the future depends on one thing—that a long existence is also a healthy one. Humanity must avoid the trap fallen into by Tithonus, a mythical Trojan who was granted eternal life by the gods, but forgot to ask also for eternal youth. Eventually, he withered into a cicada.

Tithonus：<希神>提托诺斯（特洛伊的创建人Laomedon之子）

Trojan：特洛伊

Eternal：永生的；不朽的；永恒的事物；Eternal 上帝，与定冠词the 连用；例句，Whoever believes in Him shall have eternal life.所有相信上帝的人都会获得永生。

Cicada：蝉

这些推测都很有趣，大部分也都很乐观。更长寿、活的更好的希望让一个人更圆满。但是有一个前提，那就是要一直很健康。人们要避免像托诺斯那样落入陷阱，这个人就是想要神赋予长生不老，但忘记了要求保持青春，最后变成了一只蛾子。

Forward to Methuselah

The trap of Tithonus is sprung because bodies have evolved to be throwaway vessels for the carriage of genes from one generation to the next. Biologists have a phrase for it: the disposable soma. It explains not only general senescence, but also why dementia, cancer, cardiovascular problems, arthritis and many other things are guarded against in youth, but crammed into old age once reproduction is done with. These, too, must be treated if a long and healthy life is to become routine. Moreover, even a healthy brain may age badly. An organ evolved to accommodate 70 or 80 years of memories may be unable to cope when asked to store 150 years’ worth.

Methuselah：玛士撒拉，是圣经·创世纪中的人物，据说享年965岁。

Vessels：容器; 船; 血管( vessel的名词复数)；（具有特殊品质或接受特殊品质的）人；例句，He makes decorative vessels in copper, stainless steel and silver.他用铜、不锈钢和银制造装饰性器皿。

Soma：身体，肉体，人体细胞

Dementia：[医] 痴呆；

Cardiovascular：心血管的；

Arthritis：关节炎；例句，I have a touch of arthritis in the wrist.我的手腕患有轻微关节炎。

Crammed：塞满的，挤满的；大口地吃；快速贪婪地吃；把…塞满；填入；临时抱佛脚( cram的过去式)；

托诺斯那样的陷阱是已经存在的，因为身体成了一个盛放基因的容器。对此还有一个生物学名词，可抛弃体细胞。这不仅解释了衰老问题，还解释了为什么年轻的时候不会生一系列疾病，但是一旦老了就会受到各种疾病的攻击，因此为了使得长寿而又健康的生活成为常态，医学需要解决这些疾病问题。而且，即使一个健康的大脑也会随着时间严重衰老。一个能承受70到80年的器官，可能无法成功支撑到150年。

Yet biological understanding is advancing apace. Greater longevity is within reach—even if actual immortality may not be as close (or as interesting) as some fantasists would like to believe. Be sure to draw up a very long bucket list.

Apace：急速地，飞快地；例句，Land reclamation continues apace，土地开垦继续快速进行。

Fantasists：幻想曲作曲家( fantasist的名词复数)

不过，医学在迅猛发展，尽管真正的长生不老可能并不像一些人想的那么近在咫尺，但是永生也许不接近一些幻想家的想象，或者并不那么有趣。请确保做好一份长的人生目标清单。

结语：长生不老虽然还有距离，但是长命百岁似乎已经很有希望。只是从文中提到的问题看来，寿命延长会使社会生活发生很大变化。青年员工和增加的老年员工在工作上如何协调，新的婚姻关系未必能被人们的伦理道德所接受，贫富差距可能会更加严重，而长寿的同时健康问题还无法保证。因此人们也许反而会想念以往的日子。不过无论如何推测担忧，医学的进步从未停歇，今天的人们应该对更长的人生有所准备和规划，以适应未来可能的改变。

英文原文：

http://www.economist.com/news

讲解：霞姐 / Tiassa / Angel

编排 / 校对：Angel

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