The Novel Paradigm of Longevity Science
Over at Future Current, one of the presentations from Aging 2008: "What can each of us do to advance a new paradigm for health promotion and disease prevention in the 21st century that makes as its central tenet the slowing of aging? Recently, the board of directors of [the Alliance for Aging Research] committed to an aggressive effort to speak out for longevity science, which I think is a more elegant way of saying biogerontology, in order to hasten the social benefits extending healthy aging, a goal that we have referred to as 'pursuing the longevity dividend.' Now, the members of my board are not naive. They know very well that longevity science continues to be a tough sell. Let's face it, call it by any name, the quest for significantly extended lifespan has an image problem. ... Most established scientific leaders have been brought up to believe that aging is not only unchangeable, but not even very interesting. Now let's move to lay people. Most of them think there is not anything you can do about aging. ... They believe that even if you could, it would be a social and an economic catastrophe. Too many sick, old people sitting around, not pulling their weight. Even if people believed there could be some scientific breakthrough that would make it possible to extend the healthy years of life, many will set themselves up in opposition because it sounds unnatural or upsetting to social norms or religious beliefs. ... What will it take to overcome negative assumptions among the public?"