I posted a long response to this that I think did not send properly. Sorry if this is a double up.

I'll try to recapture my main points, the first of which is that I completely disagree with you and Aubrey on this topic.

The pro aging trance has as much to do with the belief that curing aging is impossible as it does with the belief that curing aging is not worth pursuing. It's a psychological defense mechanism. Eliminate the former false belief and the later will follow shortly after.

If genuine rejuvenation to a youthful appearance were actually achieved, presumably through the cellular restoration of the skin, it would change everything. The pro aging trance would be totally shattered, perhaps even more than it would be in the event of robust rejuvenation in mice. The implications would be immediately personal and would be explicitly apparent to anyone with eyes to see. Take a walk down the street and every person you pass over the age of 25, whether they adopt the therapies or not, becomes a billboard advertising the effectiveness of rejuvenation and the necessity for life extension, purely by virtue of their physical appearance. It is not n understatement to say that the social order would collapse.

It is also a mistake to think that merely because cosmetic hucksters don't share our interest in LE that progress in this area is not imminent. You are of course correct to point out that they are dissinterested though. In fact, the worse their products work the better for them, as the customer keeps on coming back. But then, we don't need their support or their money do we? Why would we want anything to do with their cynical charade? The point is not that an industry of frauds exists... but rather that there is a market for such an industry in the first place. People want this. To a canny investor who understands that, genuine facial rejuvenation is a goldmine. I have to believe such investors exist, and if they know what's good for them they will in fact sidestep the existing cosmetics industry altogether. Distance yourself from the con men, market yourself as their antithesis... and help to bring their era to a close. Did Florey team up with the county fair salesman to market penicillin? ...Of course not. So why ought the anti progress attitude of the cosmetics frauds have any baring on those pursuing the real deal?

On another note, forgetting about the propaganda war on behalf of LE for a moment, I actually think that cosmetic rejuvenation is its own medical imperative. Just as we do all we can to treat the symptoms of other diseases so we should attempt to treat the symptoms of aging. Worrying about looking older isn't just vanity. It is a perfectly reasonable response to a progressive, degenerative, disfiguring condition. Defeating the appearance of aging is a good in and of itself.

[Posted by: Ben E at May 4, 2008 6:03 AM]

Regarding your comment “In essence, if there was any benefit to be had from the millions of Revlon customers, any tendency for these enthusiastic purchasers of potions to stand up for Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence research or similar efforts to repair aging, we'd have seen the signs by now. The "anti-aging" marketplace is its own closed world, ultimately irrelevant to the road to a cure for aging.“

Please could I direct your attention to the following recent article in the New Scientist?

http://www.newscientist.com/channel/opinion/mg19826545.400-comment-what-lies-beneath-the-makeup.html

“Last year, a group led by Christopher Griffiths, a dermatologist at the University of Manchester, UK, carried out what is thought to be the first ever rigorous independent test on an over-the-counter anti-ageing product. The team compared the performance of Protect and Perfect, manufactured by the health and beauty company Boots, with retinoic acid and a moisturiser control. The study was reported by the BBC TV Horizon programme and, more importantly, published in a peer-reviewed journal this March (British Journal of Dermatology, vol 158, p 472).

The researchers applied the three preparations to the sun-damaged skin of volunteers over 12 days, and took biopsies from the treated sites and from a control site. To the surprise of the investigators, the cosmetic proved almost as effective as retinoic acid in repairing sun-damaged skin. Even more striking was the buying frenzy that followed. Within an hour of opening, most Boots stores had sold out of Protect and Perfect.”

This suggests to me that consumers would love some decent quality scientific evidence to suggest that the products they want actually work.

Christopher Griffiths is now running a six month double blind clinical trial. The impact of this could change consumer expectations from the cosmetics industry and anti-aging marketplace in general.

Ultimately, sellers, consumers and the life extension community all want the same thing – products that work. Here, we are seeing some decent quality science being done within the anti-aging market place and consumers reacting positively to it.

Whilst it is easy to become enraged with the anti-aging market place, with this possible nascent shift in sentiment in the near future, there may be a significant opportunity for influencing both consumers and sellers and I would ask the more prominent members of the life extension community to be open to this and reach out to them at this time.

The cosmetics industry has an income of $290 billion and spends something like 2% on research and development. With some skillful diplomacy and direction, this kind of budget could buy a lot of high quality science.

Alistair Tweed

[Posted by: Alistair Tweed at May 6, 2008 2:45 AM]