A friend points out that Aubrey de Grey's October 8, 2007 Google Tech Talk on the defeat of aging has only 402 views. That's a waste of a valuable talk on a very important topic. So here's a post to begin to remedy this waste:
Aubrey and Dave Gobel co-founded the Methuselah Foundation to accelerate the defeat of the aging process. Toward this goal Aubrey proposes Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence (SENS) to reverse the aging process and repair our bodies to save us from the ravages of aging.
If you are new to SENS and or just haven't heard a recent talk by Aubrey on this topic then watch his lecture.
By Randall Parker at 2008 December 24 04:04 PM Aging DebateMerry Christmas Randall and thank you for all the posts that have made me go 'Nah...' 'Hmmmmm....' or just 'Wow!' throughout the year. Looking forward to 2009.
Aubrey seemed never to breathe. I've never heard such an information-dense presentation. Glad I didn't need to take notes. Let's wish him well, for it's us he's trying to help.
David,
Didn't you know? That's not a beard -- Aubrey has gills. ;)
It is like driving a car or riding a horse. Living things have their own agenda, and therefore are unpredictable and dangerous. If possible I would prefer using unfocused pulsed lasers to break up lipofuscin.
Why does De Grey look like Jim Carrey spoofing Rip Van Winkle? Has it not occurred to him that looking less like a freak might garner him greater credibility?
"Has it not occurred to him that looking less like a freak might garner him greater credibility?"
Herein lies the problem with many great ideas. Being supported by Instapundit helps, though.
He's talking about aging of the body and organs only. But if you cannot stop or significantly slow the aging and inevitable disintegration of the brain, what you're effectively doing is creating human vegetables. Feed it, water it, fertilize it -- yeah, it's going to stay alive. But if there's no mind there, that's not living--that's existing. It's abhorrent.
J,
Brain rejuvenation covers a lot of territory, some harder but some easier. Notably, a poor circulatory system starves the brain for sugar and oxygen and probably causes Alzheimer's Disease in the process. Well, stem cell therapies combined with Apo-A Milano HDL will probably clean out the arteries and capillaries and get the blood flowing again.
Also, another big part of brain aging is demyelination of nerve fibers. Stem cell therapies could again play a role by supplying the replacement myelin insulation.
So I do not buy the argument that brain rejuvenation is out of reach. Rejuv of nerve cells is harder. But a lot can be done with other quite important parts of the brain ecosystem.
The globe and mail has an article on "Death takes a holiday". It is from the industry that has the most up to date information, funeral homes.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/investment-ideas/death-takes-a-holiday/article1173949/