Healthy Life Extension At Convergence08
From Future Current, a transcript of a panel on healthy life extension at Convergence08. Here, Aubrey de Grey points out that there are "an enormous number of millions of dollars already being applied to Alzheimer's research specifically over the developed world, added to all the other diseases of aging. The difficulty with that approach to combating these things is that by the time these diseases have gotten far enough along to actually be called diseases, things are getting pretty far out of hand and [intractable] ... The real reason why what I call 'the geriatrics approach' to combating aging is intractable is simply because it is not applying the really rather reliable principle of 'prevention is better than cure.' Essentially the targets for these interventions are consequences of stuff that is going on throughout life and progressively accumulates to result in various types of molecular and cellular damage that are side effects of our normal metabolism. As people get older, those side effects continue to accumulate. If you are attacking the side effects of those consequences, namely those particular diseases, then your job is just going to be getting harder and harder as time goes by. This geriatrics approach is therefore going to be a short-term approach, and a losing battle."
Link: http://www.acceleratingfuture.com/people-blog/2009/longevity-convergence/