worth noting that longevity escape velocity is well-posed but typically badly miscalculated. You care about the right tail of ages, not the mean, and the tail has moved slowly if at all. Tracking rate of increase of max or 99th percentile will give a more reasonable (but sadly less inspiring) number.
You can't make any conclusions about LEV by just looking at current stats.
Medicine in its current form is just not prepared to deal with these things. It evolved to deal very well with infections and injuries, in both cases helping the body to heal itself, which it wants to do anyway.
Aging is different. An aging body actually wants to destroy itself. It intentionally disables self-repair mechanisms, allowing the diseases of old age to take over. It's the first time we have to override these internal goals. Treating these diseases individually, like we do now because it's the best we have to offer, is a losing game.
Can you post any evidence for this? I somehow have it in my mind that it's the other way around (i.e., mean doesn't grow anymore, but 99th percentile still does).
