It started simply enough. I was watching Young Washington on Prime when it came out, and as a Marine Corps vet, I naturally found myself getting curious about the man behind the uniform—specifically, how he actually met his end. What began as a quick dive into 18th-century medical history quickly unraveled into something much bigger, mostly because I realized I wouldn't last two days back then without the internet. Let's be honest: the first day would be spent frantically trying to explain to an 18th-century blacksmith why my Wi-Fi router isn't working, and the second day would involve me dramatically perishing from sheer boredom long before any throat infection could get to me. But looking at how the first President of the United States was treated with leeches and bloodletting for a routine cold, it forces you to look at our own era through a completely different lens. It made me wonder: if medicine has evolved that drastically in just a couple of centuries, what does that mean for us today? And as artificial intelligence and biotechnology start rewriting the rules of human health, are we looking at a future where living to 120 is actually possible?

If George Washington caught a severe throat infection today, he’d likely be given a dose of broad-spectrum antibiotics, spend a couple of days recovering in a hospital, and walk out completely fine.

Back in December 1799, however, standard medical practice involved draining roughly 40% of his blood to balance his "humors"—a treatment that tragically hastened his death at just 67 years old.

It makes you realize just how far modern medicine has come. But it also begs a bigger question: As technology and artificial intelligence accelerate, how long can humans actually expect to live? And what happens if someone blows past normal expectations all the way to 120?

For centuries, global life expectancy hovered stubbornly around 30 to 40 years. While adults could certainly live long lives, high infant mortality and fatal infectious diseases dragged the global average way down.

Thanks to the sanitation, vaccines, and antibiotics developed over the last 150 years, the global average life expectancy has climbed past 73, and individuals in developed nations frequently push into their 80s. If you're currently in your late 30s, statistical averages mean you can reasonably expect to see your late 70s or 80s.

The absolute verified record for human longevity belongs to Jeanne Calment, who lived to be 122 years old (dying in 1997). Out of billions of people, she remains a rare statistical mountain peak.

For the rest of us, hitting 120 remains an extreme biological frontier. But artificial intelligence and biotechnology are completely changing the conversation.

Instead of just treating diseases one by one (like targeting a specific cancer), future longevity science aims to treat aging itself as a manageable problem:

Whether human biology has a hard cap or whether [AI-powered anti-aging tech] can push past it is the great debate of this century. But the margin between science fiction and science fact is shrinking fast.