I recently stumbled upon some articles on the oldest people alive and thought it would be interesting to post this information here at singularity hub:
The oldest person alive today (that can be verified against reasonable doubt) is Edna Parker, who turned 115 years old in April 2008. An interesting quote from the article:
“She has outlived both of her sons, and is one of 75 human beings in the world who have lived past the age of 110 years.”
Mariam Amash in Israel claims to be the oldest person alive at 120 years, but her age has not been confirmed reliably.
Wikipedia appears to have good information on the records for world’s oldest people. Jeanne Calment, who passed away in 1997, currently holds the record for longest documented lifespan at 122 years.
A supercentenarian is a person who has reached the age of 110 years or more, something achieved by only one in a thousand centenarians (based on European data). Furthermore, only 2% of supercentenarians live to be 115.
Comments
I was watching bbc russian and there is a person on there who is 128 years old. here is the web site:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/russian/video/newsid_7858000/7858614.stm
Ryan,
Nice to see you here at the Hub! It just so happens I am currently reading Aubrey de Grey’s book titled “Ending Aging”. De Grey is the founder of the methuselah foundation. You might want to give his book a try.
I thought this was a neat project:
http://www.methuselahmouse.org/
May or may not have insights into human longevity but it’s a start.