I failed to note the actual anniversary at the tail end of January, but Fight Aging! has now marked three years of a daily post on (or close to) the topic of healthy life extension. In that time, I have sought to bring those who stop by, or who otherwise stumble upon my writings, around to a more productive way of looking at aging, longevity, science and human action:

• We stand within a few decades of developing technologies to significantly extend healthy human life span

• This has been said many times in past decades, incorrectly each time, but this modern age and biotechnology revolution are different - we mean it now, and have the science to back this assertion

• Scientific progress could move fast enough to accomplish this vision, but is presently failing to do so for a variety of very human reasons: conservatism, a focus on a slower path, and all the reasons people give for refusing to believe that it is possible to successfully tackle aging and win

• We are all responsible for the futures we build for ourselves, individually and in collaboration with one another - so if you want working longevity medicine and a longer, healthier life, then help to make it happen

• We can collaborate to create a better engine of progress towards near-term longevity and the long-term defeat of aging; all you have to do to help is to make the decision and step forward

• If you like life, there's nothing wrong with wanting more of it; if you want to age and die, please step aside and live the life you desire - we respect your choice, but don't act to slow us down

• In an age of possibility and astounding advances in biotechnology, the greatest hurdles to great longevity are those we create ourselves: regulation, disbelief, ignorance, fear of change and worship of death

This is a game in which all who choose to win will win big, should enough of us choose to win - but otherwise we all lose, suffer and die far sooner than we might. Significant progress in healthy life extension science requires the widespread support and understanding necessary for large-scale funding, just as it requires the early advances in science and advocacy that encourage that support.

Fight Aging! commenced around the time I first started volunteering with the Methuselah Foundation - back when the pledge fund stood at $10,000, and folk were drumming up support and donations from the healthy life extension advocates of the transhumanist community. Pledges today have topped $8.5 million dollars, and that seems like a big deal in terms of progresss. The environment for debate on healthy life extension has changed greatly for the better in the past few years, and I don't think it's just the incremental advance of science, nor the many new faces who swell the ongoing conversation. This is the start of a thaw, a sea change in attitudes that will continue and reinforce itself.

Life is good, and the future is golden - you stand a good chance of living to see far more of it if you step up to the plate and help support the scientists who will make it happen.

Technorati tags: blogging, life extension

Posted by Reason at February 6, 2007 9:19 PM | TrackBack (0)