Fight Aging!

This is a decent article under an irrelevant linkbait title, which is about the best you can expect from the Huffington Post. The author takes a look at the public advocacy of Aubrey de Grey, which in conjunction with coordinating the ongoing scientific programs of SENS Research Foundation keeps him quite busy. Perhaps the point to take away from this is that change and progress never happens as fast as we want it to, but it is happening nonetheless:

Almost every week, Aubrey de Grey gives a speech to an audience somewhere in the world. The Oxford-educated researcher walks to the stage, makes a few small jokes, and then tells his listeners about his quest to extend human life by ridding the world of age-related diseases. Over the years, he has become a seasoned speaker. He's mildly provocative and sometimes ironic, but always sharp and convincing. He is now the most familiar face on the conference circuit on the topic of regenerative medicine.

The best way to understand de Grey's vision is to understand his definition of aging: "The life-long accumulation of damage to the tissues, cells, and molecules of the body that occurs as an intrinsic side effect of the body's normal operation." A human body can tolerate some damage, but too much causes diseases. While you cannot eliminate aging from the body entirely, de Grey is convinced that there are ways for medicine to intervene. He proposes regenerative medicine, a process of replacing or regenerating human cells and eliminating all deadly cellular processes along the way.

It all sounds like a science-fiction movie, but de Grey didn't find his ideas in one of those. "They are a pain in the ass and make my life much harder," he says. "Certainly, these movies entrench the misconceptions people have. The movies that are made are movies that are made to sell, and those movies pander to people's preconceptions." And de Grey doesn't like the preconceptions of most people.

The public he usually stands in front of is not really that interested in the scientific processes behind regenerative therapy. They care more about the moral implications and the societal impact of his research. So they ask questions about overpopulation, about clashing generations, about dictators living forever, about people who want to commit suicide, about God and about nature. De Grey is always prepared and has an answer for each of them. "It's been a very long time since I got a question that I haven't heard before," he explains. "My answers have been getting a bit more aggressive over the years, a bit more impatient, but I've always seen it as part of the job."

De Grey is noticing a shift in the general attitude toward regenerative therapy. "Definitely things are getting easier - not nearly quick enough, but the whole tone of this conversation is now very different than it was 10 years ago. Back then you couldn't really have these discussions. People called me controversial, a maverick. Now people ask you questions with an expectation that you actually will be able to teach them something." Still, most people don't seem to like thinking about living forever. "There are a lot of things that people don't like to think about. People don't like to think about getting old and getting sick either. They pretend it's not going to happen, until it does."

Link: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/st-gallen-symposium/having-sex-forever_b_5570137.html