Ray Kurzweil on NPR, Monday 12th
Ray Kurzweil will be speaking on the topic of radical life extension on NPR tomorrow:
Futurist Ray Kurzweil joins NPR "On Point" host Tom Ashbrook for a live discussion of radical life extension, Monday, July 12th, 8-9 p.m. EST.On "How to Live Long Enough to Live Forever," Kurzweil discusses how to dramatically slow down the aging process, even stop and reverse it, and the social and cultural ramifications. He also describes his forthcoming book, "Fantastic Voyage: Live Long Enough to Live Forever," co-authored with Terry Grossman, M.D.
"The book makes the scientific case that immortality is within our grasp," says Kurzweil. "Our health program enables people to slow aging and disease processes to such a degree that we can remain in good health and spirits until the more radical life-extending and life-enhancing technologies, now in the research and testing pipeline, become available.
As an aside, Terry Grossman is also a cryonics supporter: you can read his two part article on the subject at the Longevity Meme.
Living long enough "to live forever" is the same concept described by Aubrey de Grey as "acturial escape velocity." If advances in medical science make it possible to live for, say, 20 extra years in good health, then that gives us 20 more years in which to research ways to extend the healthy human life span even further. We can in principle bootstrap our way to a cure for aging, one therapy at a time - if we put enough time and resources into the problem at this early, crucial juncture.
It is by no means certain that the right technologies will be developed, or that enough funding will be available to develop real anti-aging medicine in time. That is why activism and education are vitally important. There is a medical revolution in waiting, and scientists can clearly see a path to radical life extension, but medical revolutions don't happen without public support. So step up and do your part to help make longer, healthier lives a reality!