A Worm Is At Work
From the website of Gregory Benford and Michael Rose, behold the missing chapter from The Long Tomorrow, subtitled "An Insider's View of The Genetics of Aging, circa 2004." It makes for an interesting read: "The future, it seems to me, lies with research that attempts to give to us the beneficent life of the evolved Methuselah flies. They live even longer when they are calorically deprived, but such deprivation is not necessary to their postponed aging. If we could eat our normal diets, keep our normal activity levels, take care of our children, AND do all of these things for longer, then we would have true amelioration of aging. The creations of the gene jockeys and the diet manipulators can be admired for their brilliance, their scientific acuity. But they aren't supplying a future for humankind that most of us are likely to want." You may recall that Rose thinks calorie restriction will not significantly prolong human life in any case.