Yes it is, I can attest to that, and I’m not even old. I’m a spry, slightly shrunken, cancer surviving 75 year-old. My knees and back hurt if I run. I can still jump, but landing hurts a lot. I have two hernias that don’t bother me that much. Many of my teeth have been replaced. I have had three cornea transplants — there is more, but that’s already TMI.

I am very pleased that modern medicine has kept me alive, my vision is good, my hearing is so-so, and I can move, although not with great speed. I can still think well enough to type these random reactions.

My worry is that I will be alive but my brain will not keep-up. I know they are working on a treatment for Alzheimer’s but I also know that the brain is very fragile and complex. Much of the rest of the body is mechanical, but not the brain. A blood vessel can pop, I can fall on my head, or all the synapses can deteriorate from reading too much on Medium, or losing too many video games to my grandson.

And what are we going to do when half the human population is shuffling around, or taking Life-long-learning courses? Can we all live off the Ponzi scheme of a stock market forever, or is this stuff only going to be for the Silicone Valley entrepreneur class?

Do I want to live to 130? Only if you can fix a lot of things that will fall apart? And remember, “Methuselah lived 900 years, but who calls that livin’ when no gal will give in to no man that’s 900 years?”

— Dorothy Heyward / Du Bose Heyward / George Gershwin / Ira Gershwin