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Age Reduction Breakthrough?

joshmitteldorf.scienceblog.com

181–190 of 426 posts

Re: Age Reduction Breakthrough?

#181
post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's wrong with not wanting to die?

Being dead is basically the equivalent experience as not having been born. I'm not terribly upset about all the things I missed before 1977 AD. Not sure why I should be too worried about what I'll miss when I'm gone.

Sure the experience of being dead isn't too bad, because there is no such experience, but consider this: Thanks to the arrow of time, you can know what happened in the past, even if you weren't personally there. Many details are forgotten, but important events are typically recorded in historical documents, or fossils. The same is not true of the future. If I died tomorrow, I would die not knowing the answer to P vs. NP, not knowing whether humanity would last another hundred years, or another million, not knowing if we were alone in the universe. Wouldn't you be disturbed if you had to live in a world where all of human history before 1977 was forgotten? If people knew that there had been such a history, but had no memories or records of it?

Re: Age Reduction Breakthrough?

#182
post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If people are going to invest in significantly extending the lives of billions of people, are they also going to invest in drastically limiting human procreation? It seems pretty clear there are too many of us already...

I used to believe the same thing. We hear constantly how the world is overpopulated, and that made me think that things like poverty alleviation weren't worth it. Then I read a book called Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World . In it, they discuss various cognitive distortions that leave most people with a warped view of reality. The truth is that almost all people living above global poverty levels a…

If we ever eliminate poverty globally we're going to have exactly the opposite problem at which point lifespan and healthspan extension become critical for the continued existence of humanity.

Re: Age Reduction Breakthrough?

#183
post #70

Since it seems like the upshot of all of this is that Katcher is claiming to have discovered a set of signalling molecules which, when injected, rejuvenate tissue and presumably lengthen life, it runs into one of the most fundamental objections that can be leveled at theory of aging (or cure thereof): of the billions of humans that have existed, how is it that none of them have possessed a mutation which (in this cas…

At risk of sounding absolutely insane: There's probably no way to prove that this hasn't happened. Anyone who realizes they're not aging normally would likely have taken on a new identity elsewhere for fear of: 1. being burned at the stake 2. being trialed in repeated experiments 3. being deified, and then subsequently being burned at the stake. --- I realize my comment sounds like a joke, but I'm entirely serious. I…

I think you should consider the boiling frog syndrome.

Not aging is as slow as aging, and by the time you realise and accept there is something special with you, everyone else around has already figured it out. Disappearing at that point might be a pretty conspicuous move "that guy [or woman, I wonder why all immortals must always be men... :)] who is 70 but actually looked thirty went missing".

Re: Age Reduction Breakthrough?

#184

Since it seems like the upshot of all of this is that Katcher is claiming to have discovered a set of signalling molecules which, when injected, rejuvenate tissue and presumably lengthen life, it runs into one of the most fundamental objections that can be leveled at theory of aging (or cure thereof): of the billions of humans that have existed, how is it that none of them have possessed a mutation which (in this cas…

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20140520-the-girls-who-ne... > A handful of girls seem to defy one of the biggest certainties in life: ageing. He has identified four girls with this condition, marked by what seems to be a permanent state of infancy, a dramatic developmental arrest. He suspects that the disease is caused by a glitch somewhere in the girls’ DNA. His quest for immortality depends on finding it.

I met a child-like animator, who worked for Disney in Anaheim California (tiny hands). He appeared somewhere around age 9 at his mid 20s, due to a pituitary dysfunction from a car accident.

Re: Age Reduction Breakthrough?

#185

Since it seems like the upshot of all of this is that Katcher is claiming to have discovered a set of signalling molecules which, when injected, rejuvenate tissue and presumably lengthen life, it runs into one of the most fundamental objections that can be leveled at theory of aging (or cure thereof): of the billions of humans that have existed, how is it that none of them have possessed a mutation which (in this cas…

Until recently, I assume even a human with an anti-aging mutation would've been killed by something else within a typical lifespan. War, disease, lung damage from wood burning stoves or coal, injuries while working, and so on.

Also, if it takes 4 different mutations (assuming each of 4 injections is a different substance), it might be very unlikely for all 4 to happen in one individual, and any 1 mutation may not give that individual any particular reproductive advantage.

Re: Age Reduction Breakthrough?

#186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the bible does talk about people who lived for thousands of years I don't remember anyone mentioned living for _thousands_ of years. There are plenty of characters that live for hundreds, though. It is believed that Abraham lived to the age of 175, while I believe there was one character that lived into the 300's, but I do not recall their name. It has been a while since I delved into the old testament.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methuselah > Said to have died at the age of 969, he lived the longest of all figures mentioned in the Bible.

Nota bene, lunar year vs solar year

Re: Age Reduction Breakthrough?

#187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That artist that survived both the Spanish Flu and COVID is 107. Go take a look at her photo.

This one? To be fair, this photo is back from when she was a youthful 102. https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/at-107-this-artist-just... But yeah, wow. I once met a 102 year old man who lived alone in a big patch of private forest in BC that he bought in the '20s. He was still driving a car and doing jumping jacks.

Amazing. She looks like she's in her 70's, or early 80's at the worst.

Re: Age Reduction Breakthrough?

#188
post #94
post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At risk of sounding absolutely insane: There's probably no way to prove that this hasn't happened. Anyone who realizes they're not aging normally would likely have taken on a new identity elsewhere for fear of: 1. being burned at the stake 2. being trialed in repeated experiments 3. being deified, and then subsequently being burned at the stake. --- I realize my comment sounds like a joke, but I'm entirely serious. I…

One of my most favorite sci-fi movies explores this idea [0]. It's very intriguing and quite entertaining. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Man_from_Earth

Was going to also post the same thing. It too is one of my favorite sci-fi movies.

Re: Age Reduction Breakthrough?

#189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hope you are not just trolling. I am not sure if I enjoy more the news that there are effective treatments against aging or the rage you are going to induce with this post.

Google "vampire facial" and I can tell you from personal experience the results are impressive beyond anything else I've paid for my wife (laser facials, botox, fillers, lip injections, etc...). I don't understand what the "rage" would come from, or why it's "pot". This is available today, and many people pay for it. The results speak for themselves. People who pay for this stuff don't make a habit of talking about i…

Pot was a typo for post, sorry about that. The rage would come from people who feel that any indulgence accessible only to those richer than themselves is an outrage. There are many such people in tech circles.

Re: Age Reduction Breakthrough?

#190
post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At risk of sounding absolutely insane: There's probably no way to prove that this hasn't happened. Anyone who realizes they're not aging normally would likely have taken on a new identity elsewhere for fear of: 1. being burned at the stake 2. being trialed in repeated experiments 3. being deified, and then subsequently being burned at the stake. --- I realize my comment sounds like a joke, but I'm entirely serious. I…

I've met people who look 25 but are actually 45. A few of them, actually. It's on the extreme end of the bell curve but it happens. As for more extreme cases, I could believe that a few people discovered that they weren't aging and hid it, but not more than a few people, especially in modern times. Switching identities isn't exactly easy and the probability of every one of them successfully carrying it out gets expon…

I guess one would when they start approaching 80 and looking as 35.
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