Ronald Bailey Reports on the Manhattan Beach Project
Ronald Bailey, who has long covered conferences organized by the transhumanist and engineered longevity communities, has an article in Reason Magazine on the recent Manhattan Beach Project longevity summit.
Our first scientific anti-aging conference was held in Manhattan Beach, California over nine years ago. This was no ordinary conference. Rather, it was a high-powered brainstorm session to figure out how to reverse aging. Twelve researchers from around the world combined their genius and their levels of expertise in their specific specialties, and they laid the groundwork for what eventually evolved into a scientific roadmap for full age reversal....
a Longevity Summit under the Manhattan Beach Project umbrella is scheduled for what looks to be [mid-November]. The Summit agenda lists a mix of well known names from the longevity advocacy and aging research communities, speaking on a range of interesting topics.
You should head on over and take a look:
If you’re under age 30, it is likely that you will be able to live as long as you want. That is, barring accidents and wars, you have centuries of healthy life ahead of you. So the participants in the Longevity Summit convened in Manhattan Beach, California, contend. Over the weekend Maximum Life Foundation president David Kekich gathered a group of scientists, entrepreneurs, and visionaries to meet for three days with the goal of developing a scientific and business strategy to make extreme human life extension a real possibility within a couple of decades. Kekich dubbed the effort the Manhattan Beach Project....
Anti-aging research is a rich and varied territory right now. Researchers are finally beginning to get a handle on the actual causes of aging. With this increased scientific understanding, some researchers now believe they are on the way to figuring out how to stop it, and - eventually - how to reverse it.
But read the whole thing; it goes into more detail as to the presenting scientists and their messages. You're also unlikely to find this line elsewhere: "Theoretical biogerontologist, Aubrey de Grey, [is] the energizer bunny of anti-aging scientific research and advocacy." Quite so. You'll find many of the summit presenters mentioned in the context of their research back in the Fight Aging! archives if you care to go digging.
Near to the end of the article there is some speculation and discussion of topics rarely mentioned in the press, but often discussed by the pro-longevity community: why is there so little support for engineered longevity and aging research? To what degree is the scam-ridden, scum-infested "anti-aging" marketplace to blame for public suspicion and disinterest? Why are there so few wealthy people openly funding longevity and aging research, given the potentially great rewards and firm scientific support? And so forth. The community of advocates, entrepreneurs, and researchers interested in the development and application of longevity science lack good answers to these questions. Myself included. But good answers are needed, as they would lead to strategies for fundraising and persuasion that work far more effectively than those used over the past decade or two.