Some of the world's billionaires, content with their luxurious daily routines, are funding research into efforts to dramatically extend human life. Calorie restriction is one low-tech possibility that's gaining in popularity. Transhumanist Zoltan Istvan, meanwhile, believes scientific breakthroughs like gene editing could "stop aging within the next 25 years."

But a man named Mbah Gotho may have already proven what it takes to live an exceptionally long time. Here it is: patience.

That's the secret. "The recipe is just patience," the Indonesian man said in Britain's The Independent newspaper.

Gotho is 145 years old, Indonesian government records apparently say. His birthdate, according to the official documentation: December 31, 1870.

The International Business Times puts Gotho's birthdate in historical context: "If confirmed, Gotho was 30 when Queen Victoria died; 45 when the Battle of the Somme took place; 74 at the end of World War II; and celebrated his 100th birthday on the same day Paul McCartney filed a lawsuit to dissolve The Beatles."

Local officials in Indonesia say the documents are legit, news reports say, but it's not clear what exactly these records are -- whether they include, for example, a contemporaneous birth certificate. Gotho's age hasn't been independently confirmed, so for now the old-age record-holder is still France's Jeanne Calment, who died in 1997 at 122 years of age.

Gotho isn't celebrating his possible record-breaking longevity. He says he's had enough. "What I want is to die," he told reporters in Indonesia. He has outlived not only his 10 siblings and four wives but also all of his children. After decades and decades of being healthy, he now needs to be bathed and fed by others. He says he spends his days listening to the radio because his failing eyesight no longer allows him to read.

-- Douglas Perry