…Perhaps, but that doesn't make it any less reasonable or likely.

We can't know at this time if, where or how many ET civilizations may exist. But it IS becoming increasingly certain that human aging will come under control (including reversibility) at some time in this century. Possibly in time for some of us.

In that case, there are men out there already, who will have become old men by the time such technologies become avaulable. If they are wiling and able to use them (and if nothing else, the self-preservation instinct says they will), they will become physiologically young men again.

And yes, most of them will proceed to ACT like young men again.

What a shock.

Sales of the various erectile dysfunction medications tends to show that guys will go a long way to regain that particular function, so just what would you expect to happen when it becomes possible to halt and reverse all the other physiological declines that generally come with age?

(Oh, and all the above pretty much applies to women, too.)

Besides…

(spoiler warning)

The main character is such a man, who is in the massively unenveiable position of having a wife (wihtout whom he would not have even had a chance at restored youth) for whom the 'Rollback' treatements aren't working, and is continuing to decline. Other fiction has shown that immortality (or even an approxamation thereof) can be a lonely thing when you (or a small group of others) are the only ones that have it.* More than once you will observe friends and loved ones age and die. The man in 'Rollback' is clearly emotionally conflicted regarding his needs, and his faithfulness and loyalty to his wife. (And there's the small matter of what to do with himself in other ways. Most of his skills have become obsolete and he barely relates to those of the age he now appears to be.

That kind of angst is not MY idea of an 'old man's sex fantasy.' But it CAN make for good drama. I believe Rob (and in the interests of full disclosure, I should note that I am slightly aquainted with Mr. Sawyar) acheived that.

* Some of the best examples are:

"The Boat of a Million Years" by Poul Anderson

"Requeium for Metheseulah" an original Star Trek episode

The entire 'Highlander' series

Y'all come back now, y'hear?

"My connecting flight's 3 hours delayed."

as if "flight's" is a contraction for "flight is".

Yikes.

But only one of them could afford the very
expensive procedure, so the husband did it
and it was a success. However, he quickly
realized that his wife could never share in
his happiness and extended life, so he had
his mind put back in his old body.

Sawyer's not a bad writer, but he is no giant,
and frankly I wish sometimes he would just write an essay on his philosophical musing than stick them in a novel where most of the characters just talk and talk and talk.

We can't know at this time if, where or how many ET civilizations may exist. But it's becoming increasingly certain that human aging will come under control (including reversibility) later in this century.

In that case, there are men out there already who will have become old men by the time such technologies become avaulable. If they are wiling and able to use them (and if nothing else, the self-preservation insticnt says they will), they will become physiologically young men again.

And yes, most of them will proceed to ACT like young men again.

What a shock.

(Oh, ant al the above pretty much applies to women, too.)