Open Letter Calling for Engineering Negligible Senecence!

[elfs]

54 scientist working in the biomedical field have signed a letter calling upon the rest of the research community to take seriously the project of engineering a neglible senecence. Instead of tackling diabetes, heart disease, Alzheimers, etc., we should go to the root of the problem and figure out why the body doesn't repair itself. Instead of looking for a cure for cancer, we should understand why the body's cellular mechanisms fail and intervene early.

We sometimes hear about "premature death," but the fact is all deaths are premature: almost everyone has something more to offer.

Comments

[antonia-tiger.livejournal.com]

It would need a whole string of miracles for this to make any difference to me, but there are parents reading this who have smart kids, curious as all heck, who might be able to use an extended lifespan.

And it does seem that sopcieties react to the perception of a reduced need for children. Life expectancy goes up, and birth rate goes down.

I may be some sort of cock-eyed optimist, and there are a lot of things that could make life hell for the next generation, but I don't think life extension is likely to happen soon enough or quickly enough to matter. And if there ends up a pool of long-lived, well-educated people, maybe that's our civilisation's Encyclopedia Galactica.

Immortality as the prize for winning Scrapheap Challenge?