The Futurists 8 - Life Extension

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I asked Stefan if he was serious about discussing about "Life Extension" on April Fool's day. On the very day, on arrival in Chinatown, Global Sounds Cafe was closed for reasons unknown to us. Stefan was late and called to say that he met up with an accident on his way. So, we had to hang around, expecting to wait for a bit.

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Ten minutes later, Stefan arrived looking unscathed. He told us it was an April Fool's joke and he didn't have an accident. He thought that I was playing an April Fool's joke on him - that Global Sounds Cafe was closed! It was not a joke - the cafe was indeed closed!

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Jokes aside, we then moved on to the street stalls and had our meeting there. There was only three of us and we decided to discuss about life in general rather than "Life Extension". There are two books that Stefan introduced. The first one is from the speaker above.

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This is a summary of "Ending Ageing" from amazon:

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MUST WE AGE?

A long life in a healthy, vigorous, youthful body has always been one of humanity’s greatest dreams. Recent progress in genetic manipulations and calorie-restricted diets in laboratory animals hold forth the promise that someday science will enable us to exert total control over our own biological aging.

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Nearly all scientists who study the biology of aging agree that we will someday be able to substantially slow down the aging process, extending our productive, youthful lives. Dr. Aubrey de Grey is perhaps the most bullish of all such researchers. As has been reported in media outlets ranging from 60 Minutes to The New York Times, Dr. de Grey believes that the key biomedical technology required to eliminate aging-derived debilitation and death entirely—technology that would not only slow but periodically reverse age-related physiological decay, leaving us biologically young into an indefinite future—is now within reach.

 

In Ending Aging, Dr. de Grey and his research assistant Michael Rae describe the details of this biotechnology. They explain that the aging of the human body, just like the aging of man-made machines, results from an accumulation of various types of damage.  As with man-made machines, this damage can periodically be repaired, leading to indefinite extension of the machine’s fully functional lifetime, just as is routinely done with classic cars.  We already know what types of damage accumulate in the human body, and we are moving rapidly toward the comprehensive development of technologies to remove that damage.  By demystifying aging and its postponement for the nonspecialist reader, de Grey and Rae systematically dismantle the fatalist presumption that aging will forever defeat the efforts of medical science.

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I browsed through the second book (below) and found it to be possibly an easier read.

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A summary of "A Scientific Conquest of Death" in Amazon:

Nineteen scientists, doctors and philosophers share their perspective on what is arguably the most significant scientific development that humanity has ever faced - the eradication of aging and mortality. This anthology is both a gentle introduction to the multitude of cutting-edge scientific developments, and a thoughtful, multidisciplinary discussion of the ethics, politics and philosophy behind the scientific conquest of aging.

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One of the key issues is that if we were to live forever, then are we allowed to have children?

Also, isn't reincarnation a better way? In that we still live forever, but our bodies are recycled and renewed in each of our incarnation? That is, if you believe in reincarnation.

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Stefan said that it may be better also to have a scientific alternative to extend life, just in case, reincarnation doesn't really happen. :)