Want to live forever? Okay, not forever, but let’s say… 1000 years?
Think I’m kidding? Well I’m not. For 10 – 15 years I’ve been telling people that I believe the science to significantly extend the human lifespan would be here in my lifetime and that I intend to use it to try to live 500 – 1000 years.
And my guest tonight, Dr Aubrey de Grey, biogerontologist from the Department of Genetics, University of Cambridge, UK, is the man leading the field in this incredibly exciting research.
As his website says:
The central goal of my biogerontology work is to expedite the development of a true cure for human aging.
He has developed the term SENS (Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence) and is confident that, given enough funding (a measly $100 million a year for ten years), we can make significant in-roads towards curing human aging. He and his partners have established The Methuselah Mouse Prize, a scientific competition designed to draw attention to the ability of new technologies to slow and even reverse the damage of the aging process. And a couple of days ago, Technology Review magazine issued another challenge – Technology Review is announcing a prize for any molecular biologist working in the field of aging who is willing to take up the challenge: submit an intellectually serious argument that SENS is so wrong that it is unworthy of learned debate, and you will be paid $20,000 if it convinces independent referees.
Out of all of the interviews I’ve done in the last 8 months, I have to say this is personally the most exciting. Getting to assist guys like Dr de Grey to get their message out to the wider population makes this podcasting thing worthwhile.
Now… GO! Listen to the show! And then come back here and spend some SERIOUS QUALITY TIME checking out the links…
- SENS home
Read Technology Review’s detailed article on Dr de Grey
Donate money at the MPRize website
YAHOO NEWS RSS feed on “Aubrey de Grey” to you can stay up to date
Further reading:
The Spike (Damien Broderick)
The Age of Spiritual Machines (Ray Kurzweil)
The Prospect of Immortality (Robert Ettinger)
But the question (as best put by Freddy) real is:
Who wants to live for ever, anyway?
Molly
If you practice calorie restriction, does that mean that you don’t drink beer?
btw your podcast has turned me around from my anti-podcast stance.
Darryn – yah I drink beer VERY rarely. I’m mostly vegan and eat mostly raw vegetables with some raw fruit. And black coffee, which is bad for me, but you gotta have SOME vices! ๐
Glad you’re enjoying the show! Tell your mates in Holland! ๐
Responding to Molly who thinks the question is:
“Who wants to live for ever anyway?”
I ask,
“So, being of sound mind and body and enjoying the sun on your face, a warm hand to hold and the smell of fresh food on the table, and perhaps a good story to tell or hear.. with all of this in your life..
Why would you want to die?
Whenever someone asks me if I want to live forever, I simply tell them I want to live as long as I want to live. This ‘forever’ stuff is just another way of pessimists trying not to get their hopes up.
Significant life extension will not happen in our lifetimes. Even with advances in biotechnology and nanotechnology growing exponentially faster, a true life extension/rejuvenation therapy will arrive around 2075 at the earliest. It took evolution billions of years to set up our current condition, and Aubrey thinks we can solve it within 50 years?! Get real! We’re not even sophisticated enough to succesfully fight the common cold let along aging.
I wish Aubrey well in his endeavours and I hope someday we can get to the point when the aging process becomes a manageable condition, but for now, don’t hold your breath.
I fiercely believe that only our small children, or those up to 15 years old at the most will benefit. Those over that should certainly consider cryonics.
AD, I think guys like Aubrey and Kurzweil are saying that it will happen incrementally, not all at once. You arent going to take up ten years from now and find out that you can live for 1000 years. It’ll happen piece by piece. Scientists will find ways to eliminate the major diseases, one by one. They’ll extend your life by five years, not 500. But in that 5 years, we’ll find out how to extend it another 10. And in that ten, we’ll grab another 20. And so on.
IN MY OPINION AND I PUBLISHED A VERY SIMPLE METHOD OF ATTAINIG LONGEVITY, IS BY EXPELLING HEAT AND ACIDS FROM THE BODY.
I TRIED THIS ON MYSELF AND ON SOME OF MY PATIENTS – It starts by, getting free of ilnesses, specilay chronical ones, and the more you get rid of exesses of heat and acids the more younger you become and by doing so you may reach the immortality.
tiago
How can I say this delicately? Very interesting man but am I the only one who thinks he fulfills quite a few of the characteristics of Narcisstic Personality Disorder? The first comment his mother said was that she wanted him to be special. Is this his primary unconscious motivating force? This is not in any way a personal attack, just comments as to possible underlying motivations. Something to think about anyway.
I used to doubt this fine example of vigor and longevity, but as of a few weeks ago, I no longer do.
You go, Mr. Aubrey de Grey! ๐
There are 3 things required to attain IMORTALITY of the body:
1- Expelling heat and fire from the bodies
2- Expelling acids
3- And the most important one: disconnection from other beings and things
I have been working in this fashion, on me and my patients with great success.
First i get free of all chronic illnesses(mental and phisical) from the body.
The last step is the disconnection process.
Using a therapy i created you can get amazing results, by curing, those so called incurabel illnesses.
Read more in the forum…
Tiago Ciriaco