Can Ageing be Reprogrammed?

Human growth and development from a single cell to a finite organism over two decades is carefully programmed. Is human ageing also programmed? And if it is — can it be reprogrammed?

It is clear that our body has a phase in which it grows and develops in a programmed manner, maturing both physically and sexually. This amazing process, which begins with the first cell and ends with the grown-up organism in full force, prepares humans for the reproduction and prolongation of the species. Growth and development are completed around the age of 25. After this, our bodies simply continue to last in time and space. That persistence in time is gradually accompanied by many signs of ageing, during which the organism slowly becomes an increasingly pale copy of what it was after its completed development.

The key question that science still needs to clarify is what, in fact, is ageing? Why does it happen? Namely, if human growth and development were carefully programmed until the mid-twenties, it would be important to understand whether, after that point, ageing is also programmed? It could lead to various diseases and, over time, to death. But, an alternative explanation is that — after the completion of growth and development, and the reproduction and raising of the children — perhaps the body is no longer under any special control? It may simply be left at the mercy of time, which gradually leads to its deterioration — as is the case with all devices, buildings, or other things that we, humans, have built?