Why We Should Reject Radical Enhancement.1
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Who Wants to Live Forever? Reader’S Digest
HEALTH Who Wantsto Live Forever? As a species, we humans appear to be the undisputed masters of our planet. Moreover, since Yuri Gagarin’s inaugural space flight in 1961, we can even leave the confines of Earth to travel in space. Yet, we have one Achilles’ heel—we’re mortal BY CHRIS MENON 1234567890 1234567890 36 BRAIN LIGHT/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO WHO WANTS TO LIVE FOREVER? READEr’s DIGEST T 122 YEARS, THE MAXIMUM HUMAN LIFESPAN lags well behind some species of giant tortoise (188 years), Greenland shark (400 years) and the record set by the lowly Icelandic clam (507 years). Even those relatively few humans who do manage to make it past 100—some 14,570 people in the UK in 2015—are invariably bedeviled byA poor health. Recently, efforts to extend the healthy of Amazon, has similarly invested human lifespan have achieved much in Unity Biotechnology, which aims publicity following the backing of “to design therapeutics that prevent, visionary, super-rich Silicon Valley halt, or reverse diseases of ageing”. tech entrepreneurs. In 2013, Google’s Unity intends to develop a new founders created a subsidiary class of therapies called “senolytic company called Calico (short for medicines”, designed to selectively the California Life Company), eliminate senescent cells. Senescent Billionaire researchers, which promptly hired a team of top cells accumulate with age and, Some believe that death, Arthur Levinson, Jeff technologies that scientists and now has more than unlike normal cells, they secrete like any disease, can be Bezos and Elon Musk the SENS Research £1bn in the bank to fund its work. -
From Here to Immortality: Anti-Aging Medicine
FromFrom HereHere toto Immortality:Immortaalitty: AAnti-AgingAnnntti-AAgging MMedicineedicine Anti-aging medicine is a $5 billion industry. Despite its critics, researchers are discovering that inter ventions designed to turn back time may prove to be more science than fiction. By Trudie Mitschang 14 BioSupply Trends Quarterly • October 2013 he symptoms are disturbing. Weight gain, muscle Shifting Attitudes Fuel a Booming Industry aches, fatigue and joint stiffness. Some experience The notion that aging requires treatment is based on a belief Thear ing loss and diminished eyesight. In time, both that becoming old is both undesirable and unattractive. In the memory and libido will lapse, while sagging skin and inconti - last several decades, aging has become synonymous with nence may also become problematic. It is a malady that begins dete rioration, while youth is increasingly revered and in one’s late 40 s, and currently 100 percent of baby boomers admired. Anti-aging medicine is a relatively new but thriving suffer from it. No one is immune and left untreated ; it always field driven by a baby- boomer generation fighting to preserve leads to death. A frightening new disease, virus or plague? No , its “forever young” façade. According to the market research it’s simply a fact of life , and it’s called aging. firm Global Industry Analysts, the boomer-fueled consumer The mythical fountain of youth has long been the subject of base will push the U.S. market for anti-aging products from folklore, and although it is both natural and inevitable, human about $80 billion now to more than $114 billion by 2015. -
Read Our New Annual Report
The seeds of a concept. The roots of an idea. The potential of a world free of age-related disease. Photo: Sherry Loeser Photography SENS Research Foundation Board of Directors Barbara Logan, Chair Bill Liao, Secretary Kevin Perrott, Treasurer Michael Boocher Jonathan Cain Kevin Dewalt Michael Kope Jim O’Neill Frank Schüler Sherry Loeser Photography 2 Contents CEO Letter (Jim O’Neill) 4 Finances 5 Donors 6 - 7 Fundraising & Conferences 8 - 9 Around the World with Aubrey de Grey 10 Outreach 11 Founding CEO Tribute & Underdog Pharmaceuticals 12 - 13 Investments 14 Welcome New Team Members 15 Education 16 - 17 Publications & Research Advisory Board 18 Research Summaries 19 - 22 Ways to Donate 23 The SRF Team Front row: Anne Corwin (Engineer/Editor), Amutha Boominathan (MitoSENS Group Lead), Alexandra Stolzing (VP of Research), Aubrey de Grey (Chief Science Officer), Jim O’Neill (CEO), Bhavna Dixit (Research Associate). Center row: Caitlin Lewis (Research Associate), Lisa Fabiny-Kiser (VP of Operations), Gary Abramson (Graphics), Maria Entraigues-Abramson (Global Outreach Coordinator), Jessica Lubke (Administrative Assistant). Back row: Tesfahun Dessale Admasu (Research Fellow), Amit Sharma (ImmunoSENS Group Lead), Michael Rae (Science Writer), Kelly Protzman (Executive Assistant). Not Pictured: Greg Chin (Director, SRF Education), Ben Zealley (Website/Research Assistant/ Deputy Editor) Photo: Sherry Loeser Photography, 2019 3 From the CEO At our 2013 conference at Queens College, Cambridge, I closed my talk by saying, “We should not rest until we make aging an absurdity.” We are now in a very different place. After a lot of patient explanation, publication of scientific results, conferences, and time, our community persuaded enough scientists of the feasibility of the damage repair approach to move SENS and SENS Research Foundation from the fringes of scientific respectability to the vanguard of a mainstream community of scientists developing medical therapies to tackle human aging. -
Longevity and Generosity. the Death of Death. July 2018. N° 112
Longevity and generosity. The death of death. July 2018. N° 112. Some people say, “Oh, you shouldn’t do enhancement” but the thing is we do enhancement all the time — to some extent, all aging reversal is enhancement. Vaccines are enhancement… I think I’m just now getting up to speed after 63 years of education. Aging reversal is something that will buy me and many of my colleagues a lot more time to make many more contributions, so you might consider that a meta-level contribution, if we can pull that off. World-renowned Harvard University biology researcher George Church (source). Theme of the month. How to contribute financially to research for a much longer healthy life Introduction If you have considerable financial means you can afford medical care more easily than less well-off citizens. But whether you are rich or not, with a good "genetic capital" or not, whatever your precautions and your anti-aging clinic visits, in the current state of knowledge your chances are low of living more than 100 years if you are a woman and beyond 95 years if you are of the weaker sex for longevity. And whatever happens, you will not live past 122 years for a woman et 116 years for a man. To go further will require complex and costly research. If informed citizens pay money to support this research, it will be positive in a direct way by funding the research. It will also be positive in that it will show the growing interest in these issues. What could you do about it? Moderate financial support If your financial means are limited or if you do not wish to make large donations, your action can still have an impact. -
Ÿþc R Y O N I C S M a G a Z I N E , Q 1 2 0
2007 RECAP 1st Quarter 2008 • Volume 29:1 2007 ANnual Review page 5 Member Profile: Wes Du Charme page 3 7th Alcor Conference Recap page 13 Cryonics and Religion: Friends or Foes? page 19 INSIDE CRYONICS 2 From the Editor 1ST QUARTER 2008 • VOLUME 29:1 19 Cryonics and Religion: Friends or Foes? The cryonics community recognizes the importance and challenge of being 1st Quarter 2008 • Volume 29:1 understood by the general 2007 RECAP public. Religion plays a sub- Cover shows opening reception stantial role in our diverse at the 7th Alcor conference. 2007 ANnual society and may seem to Review Photo by Brian Harris. page 5 some to be at odds with many facets of scientific COVER STORY: PAGE 5 advancement. Meet one theologian who feels the 2007 Annual Review: Today, over ultimate success of cryonics 850page people 3 in the world rely on the is contingent upon the sup- Member Profile: Wes Du CharmeAlcor Life Extension Foundation for Recap port of more than just great Conferencecryopreservation page 13 services. Enrich your 7th Alcor scientific minds. understanding of present-day clinical advancements with the potential to CryonicsFriends and Religion: or Foes?page 19 significantly benefit Alcor’s growing 22 Book Review: Ending membership base in years to come. Aging Likened to a good detective novel, Ending Aging allures the reader into a real- life tale of the mysteries of aging. The author, Dr. 3 Member Profile: Wes Du Charme Aubrey de Grey, has been Wes Du Charme – psychologist, author and barber shop quartet the center of controversy singer – celebrates his thirteenth year as an Alcor member in since proposing a systematic June 2008. -
Blurring Our Edges
NATURE|Vol 450|15 November 2007 BOOKS & ARTS not involve passing on truths from producer rigorous understanding of whose technical between colour perceivers and colour-blind to consumer, but takes the form of fallible expertise really should weigh in on techno- participants, probably because the latter had judgements made in situations in which all logical decision-making. This is what Collins been immersed since birth in the language of the desired information is not available. This and Evans call the “problem of extension”, or colour and acquired the ability to pass as per- applies to scientific collaborations and gov- “who is entitled to contribute to the technical ceivers. In another, judges could not pick out ernmental projects. “The speed of politics,” component of a technological decision”. If an Collins in a group of bona fide gravitational- they write in a characteristically succinct and extension is too technocratic, it will foster dis- wave researchers. clever remark, “exceeds the speed of scientific trust; if it is too broad, there is a risk of invoking These results have startling implications. consensus formation.” This leads them to ‘technological populism’, which means deci- For instance, Evans has shown that minorities defend their seemingly pedestrian conclusion sions could be overly influenced by politics or can acquire enough interactional expertise of that governments should rely on experts as lifestyle choice. mainstream culture to foil attempts to pick “the best way to distil human experience of an The authors address the problem of exten- them out by questioning alone. This suggests uncertain world” — even when those experts sion by offering a “periodic table of expertise” that if minorities live by different values, it is have no final answers. -
SENS Research Foundation Annual Report 2015
S E N S R e s e a r c h F o u n d a t i o n has a unique mission: to ensure the development of cures which repair the underlying cellular and molecular damage of aging. This document, our 2 0 1 5 R e p o r t, demonstrates our commitment to delivering on the promise of that mission, and to meeting the challenges facing the rapidly emerging rejuvenation biotechnology field. Our research program delivers key proof-of-concept results. Our education program prepares the first generation of rejuvenation biotechnology professionals. Our outreach program widens and connects our communi. Our Rejuvenation Biotechnology conferences unite stakeholders from academic, industrial, political, regulatory and financial institutions. Together, we are transforming the way the world researches and treats age-related disease. i n t r o d u c t i o n 2 l e t t e r f r o m t h e C E O 3 c o m m u n i t y 4 o u t r e a c h 6 e d u c a t i o n 8 r e s e a r c h 1 0 f i n a n c e s 1 4 r e s e a r c h : p r o j e c t b y p r o j e c t 1 5 s u p p o r t i n g t h e f o u n d a t i o n 2 3 FOUNDATION BOARD OF LEADERSHIP DIRECTORS Mike Kope Barbara Logan Jonathan Cain Chief Executive Officer Board Chair Kevin Dewalt Kevin Perrott Dr. -
Do Actuaries Believe in Longevity Deceleration? Edouard Debonneuil, Stéphane Loisel, Frédéric Planchet
Do actuaries believe in longevity deceleration? Edouard Debonneuil, Stéphane Loisel, Frédéric Planchet To cite this version: Edouard Debonneuil, Stéphane Loisel, Frédéric Planchet. Do actuaries believe in longevity decelera- tion?. 2015. hal-01219270v2 HAL Id: hal-01219270 https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01219270v2 Preprint submitted on 5 Aug 2017 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. DO ACTUARIES BELIEVE IN LONGEVITY DECELERATION? Edouard Debonneuil Stéphane Loisel Frédéric Planchet* Univ Lyon - Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, ISFA, Laboratoire SAF EA2429, F-69366, Lyon, France Prim’Act, 42 avenue de la Grande Armée, 75017 Paris, France ActuRx Version 2.0 du 05/08/2017 ABSTRACT As more and more people believe that significant life extensions may come soon, should commonly used future mortality assumptions be considered prudent? We find here that commonly used actuarial tables for annuitants – as well as the Lee-Carter model – do not extrapolate life expectancy at the same rate for future years as for past years; instead they produce some longevity deceleration. This is typically because their mortality improvements decrease after a certain age, and those age-specific improvements are constant over time. -
Sample Chapter [PDF]
THE PHILOSOPHY OF TRANSHUMANISM This page intentionally left blank THE PHILOSOPHY OF TRANSHUMANISM ACriticalAnalysis BENJAMIN ROSS University of North Texas, USA United Kingdom – North America – Japan – India Malaysia – China Emerald Publishing Limited Howard House, Wagon Lane, Bingley BD16 1WA, UK First edition 2020 © 2020 Benjamin Ross Published under exclusive licence by Emerald Publishing Limited Reprints and permissions service Contact: [email protected] No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without either the prior written permission of the publisher or a licence permitting restricted copying issued in the UK by The Copyright Licensing Agency and in the USA by The Copyright Clearance Center. Any opinions expressed in the chapters are those of the authors. Whilst Emerald makes every effort to ensure the quality and accuracy of its content, Emerald makes no representation implied or otherwise, as to the chapters’ suitability and application and disclaims any warranties, express or implied, to their use. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN: 978-1-83982-625-2 (Print) ISBN: 978-1-83982-622-1 (Online) ISBN: 978-1-83982-624-5 (Epub) CONTENTS Introduction 1 1. Redesigning Humans 5 1.1. Transhumanist Philosophy I: Summoning the Posthuman 7 1.2. Transhumanist Philosophy II: Epistemological Certainty 13 1.3. Resisting Transhumanism: Bioconservative Views 18 1.4. The Language of Enhancement through the Lens of Automation 25 2. Engaging with Transhumanism 37 2.1. -
SENS Research Foundation Annual Report 2014
sens research foundation foundation report august 2014 mission 2 leer from the CEO 3 outreach 4 research 8 education 14 finances 16 research: project by project 18 FOUNDATION BOARD OF LEADERSHIP DIRECTORS Mike Kope Barbara Logan Jonathan Cain Chief Executive Officer Board Chair Kevin Dewalt Kevin Perrott Aubrey de Grey Treasurer James O’Neill Chief Science Officer Bill Liao Mike Kope Secretary © 2014, SENS Research Foundation a: 110 Pioneer Way, Suite J / Mountain View, CA 94041 / USA p: 650.336.1780 f: 650.336.1781 www.sens.org All rights reserved. No part of this material may be reproduced without specific permission from SENS Research Foundation. SENS Research Foundation’s federal employer ID number is 94-3473864. Because SENS Research Foundation is a 501(c)(3) non-profit, your donation may be tax deductible. transforming the way the world researches and treats age-related disease We fund research at institutions around the world, and at our own Moun- tain View facility. Our research is integrated with wide-ranging outreach and education programs. Our goal is to see the emergence of an industry that will cure the diseases of aging, an industry based around what we call rejuvenation biotechnology. Many things go wrong with aging bodies, but at the root of them all is the burden of decades of unrepaired damage to the cellular and molecular structures that make up the functional units of our tissues. Faced with the diseases and disabilities caused by this damage, today’s medicine is too often reduced to crisis management in the emergency room, painfully harsh treatments for diseases such as cancer, or best efforts at palliative care. -
Life Extension Pseudoscience and the SENS Plan
Life Extension Pseudoscience and the SENS Plan Preston W. Estep III, Ph.D. President and CEO, Longenity Inc. Matt Kaeberlein, Ph.D. Department of Pathology University of Washington Pankaj Kapahi, Ph.D. Buck Institute for Age Research Brian K. Kennedy, Ph.D. Department of Biochemistry University of Washington Gordon J. Lithgow Ph.D. Buck Institute for Age Research George M. Martin, M.D. Department of Pathology University of Washington Simon Melov, Ph.D. Buck Institute for Age Research R. Wilson Powers III Department of Genome Sciences University of Washington Heidi A. Tissenbaum, Ph.D. Program in Gene Function and Expression Program in Molecular Medicine University of Massachusetts Medical School Abstract Recent scientific advances have taken gerontological research to challenging and exciting new frontiers, and have given many scientists increased confidence that human aging is to some degree controllable. We have been on the front lines of some of these developments and the speculative discussions they have engendered, and we are proud to be part of the increasingly productive biomedical effort to reduce the pathologies of aging, and age-associated diseases, to the greatest degree possible—and to extend healthy human life span to the greatest degree possible. In contrast to clearly justifiable speculations regarding future advances in human longevity a few have made claims that biological immortality is within reach. One, Aubrey de Grey, claims to have developed a “detailed plan to cure human aging” called Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence (SENS) [1, 2]. This is an extraordinary claim, and we believe that extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidentiary support. In supplementary material posted on the Technology Review web site we evaluate SENS in detail. -
Do Actuaries Believe in Longevity Deceleration?
Do actuaries believe in longevity deceleration? Edouard Debonneuil(*), Frédéric Planchet, Stéphane Loisel ISFA, Longevity 11, 2015 (*) [email protected] Do actuaries believe in longevity 1 deceleration? Longevity 11, ISFA 2015 Do actuaries believe in longevity deceleration? • Part I. Extrapolation of the past • Part II. Taking a prudent view Do actuaries believe in longevity deceleration? Longevity 11, ISFA 2015 2 Modeling a neutral view EXAMPLE OF BELIEF In the absence of belief of whether Youth pill life expectancy increase faster in the future (e.g. biomedical discoveries) or not (e.g. pollution) Virus would you, for a central longevity scenario, rather consider same/lower/higher mortality improvements than in the past? mortality improvements Do actuaries believe in longevity deceleration? Longevity 11, ISFA 2015 3 Historical evolutions of life expectancy • « +1 quarter per year » • Piecewise lines +23% Louis Pasteur Jim Oeppen and James Vaupel (2002) : Jacques Vallin and France Meslé (2010) : Espérance de vie: peut-on Broken Limits to Life Expectancy. Science 296 gagner trois mois par an indéfiniment ? Population & Sociétés 473 In a central scenario, and in the absence of country-specific context, should life expectancy rather increase by +{20-25}% year per year? less? more? Do actuaries believe in longevity deceleration? Longevity 11, ISFA 2015 4 Lee Carter uses the same mortality improvements for the future as in the past; does it lead to +23% per year? • Extract from the original paper: • “While many methods assume an upper limit to the human life span (…) our method allows (…) the deceleration of life expectancy (…) without any special additional assumptions.” Lee Ronald and Lawrence Carter (1992) : Journal of the American Statistical Association.