Live data from Hacker News

With greater longevity, the quest to avoid infirmities of aging is more urgent

newyorker.com

171–180 of 245 posts

Re: With greater longevity, the quest to avoid infirmities of aging is more urgent

#171

So many people think anti-aging science is just about living more years, but that's missing half the picture. Anti-aging science is not just about living more years, it's about being able to live healthy and fulfilling lives both physically and mentally even as you age. Way too many people are broken by age before they die, to prevent that would be fantastic.

Yeah I agree. Compressing several average-looking & humdrum lives into one magnificent life is worth trying. In other words, do all the sex, eat all the food, visit all the places, meet all the people, etc

Re: With greater longevity, the quest to avoid infirmities of aging is more urgent

#172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Darker chocolate should trend towards being higher in calories, containing proportionally more fat.

You're confusing Dark and White chocolate. 100% Dark chocolate isn't 100% cocoa butter, it's the non-fat solids. If you eat some it's quite obviously not fatty, it's bitter and dry like a burnt coffee bean. Edit: I'm mistaken here, dark chocolate is half fat, TIL.

100% chocolate is roughly half fat by weight, easily verified by looking at the nutrition information on the packaging. Not to be confused with cocoa powder, which is indeed just the non-fat solids.

As you add sugar to chocolate, the proportion of total weight that is fat goes down, and fat being more calorie dense than sugar, calories per unit weight go down.

Re: With greater longevity, the quest to avoid infirmities of aging is more urgent

#173
post #148

Somewhat off-topic, but I always thought the most prominent real-life reenactment of The Fox and the Grapes was all of the media and thinkpieces that people have written about how living for an extended period of time would be just _awful_. You wouldn't find many people who think that 40 years would be an acceptable lifespan, and most people would probably like to live to 100 if they got there in good health, but as…

"I could understand the impulse people would have to not extend their lives if that's truly what they wanted, but the almost _cultural_ belief that seeking immortality is Bad and Wrong, something only pursued by cartoon villains and insane emperors ..." I've spent some time thinking about this. Bear with me ... First, let me agree with you that I am flabbergasted by the notion that one would have nothing but ill-use…

This is an interesting aspect. But our inability to or having a hard time of changing our fundamental believes seems like a bug to me. I'd hope its one of those health issues we'll learn to mitigate. Btw, do you guys also despise the concept of a global learning rate in AI/ML? There has to be a better way than just assuming "the current state is good enough, now lets only fix details". Humans certainly don't work that way.

But back to topic... even without, I have a hard time accepting that you can simply extrapolate the current "old people behavior" happening for a few hundred years longer. A lot of issues would suddenly affect them. They'd have already lived though multiple revolutions (e.g. new tech, maybe like not paying with hard cash anymore) and internalize this as a part of life. Actually, we're close to having to learn this right now, with how fast progress has accelerated.

But yeah, making it work with stuff like actively seeking peers across a diverse spectrum would probably require drastic effort with a significant burden placed on the individual.

Re: With greater longevity, the quest to avoid infirmities of aging is more urgent

#174
post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everything is a "thing for a reason". The reason could be a tiny outlier minority. You used the term "many".

I used the term "many" specifically because I do not have the stats. Not a majority, but a significant number of people, that struggle to gain weight.

If you have no data to back up your claim you should not make that claim. The word "many" is a borderline weasel word.

Re: With greater longevity, the quest to avoid infirmities of aging is more urgent

#175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're confusing Dark and White chocolate. 100% Dark chocolate isn't 100% cocoa butter, it's the non-fat solids. If you eat some it's quite obviously not fatty, it's bitter and dry like a burnt coffee bean. Edit: I'm mistaken here, dark chocolate is half fat, TIL.

100% chocolate is roughly half fat by weight, easily verified by looking at the nutrition information on the packaging. Not to be confused with cocoa powder, which is indeed just the non-fat solids. As you add sugar to chocolate, the proportion of total weight that is fat goes down, and fat being more calorie dense than sugar, calories per unit weight go down.

You're right, I'm mistaken - I didn't realize even 100% dark chocolate is half fat by weight.

Re: With greater longevity, the quest to avoid infirmities of aging is more urgent

#176

Yes. Don't eat sugar. Don't smoke. Don't drink. Eat fruits and vegetables. Exercise regularly. Walking counts, but you probably want to throw some upper-body stuff in there as well. Working in the garden counts. That's about 80-95% of "how to stay healthy using forces under your control" as far as I can tell.

+ have a lot of close friends. According to an 80 year Harvard study, the quality of close relationships was among the biggest factors in long term health.

“The surprising finding is that our relationships and how happy we are in our relationships has a powerful influence on our health,” said Robert Waldinger, director of the study, a psychiatrist at Massachusetts General Hospital and a professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. “Taking care of your body is important, but tending to your relationships is a form of self-care too. That, I think, is the revelation.”

Re: With greater longevity, the quest to avoid infirmities of aging is more urgent

#177
post #9

Anyone interested in the idea of living longer (without the detrimental effects of aging) should check out any Aubrey De Grey talk/video/interview.

Or get a gym membership, actually use it and eat less crap. This may only give you a few years, but chances that it'll actually work are much higher.

https://youtu.be/LeCpHugyI80?t=740

It won't make substantial change.

Re: With greater longevity, the quest to avoid infirmities of aging is more urgent

#178

In this thread I've seen the overpopulation argument framed as theft. Here are all the others I've found. Summary of pro death arguments: Fairness Only rich people will get it. (No tech has ever done this.) Better to give money to the poor than science. (family, city, state, nation, has proven local investment beats foreign.) Bad for society Dead people make more room for new, other people. (consider going first.) Ru…

> A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die, and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it. - Max Planck

Your entire argument seems to be more people = more progress. And longer lives of brilliant people = more progress. What about longer lives of those stuck in their ways or those who want to keep status quo?

And more people != more progress. 1. Billions of uneducated poor. 2. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiple_discovery where several scientists or inventors simultaneously make a break through.

You’re also making an abstract “progress” as the ultimate goal. But what type of progress? Creativity? Technology? What about happiness? Or sustainability?

Re: With greater longevity, the quest to avoid infirmities of aging is more urgent

#179

Somewhat off-topic, but I always thought the most prominent real-life reenactment of The Fox and the Grapes was all of the media and thinkpieces that people have written about how living for an extended period of time would be just _awful_. You wouldn't find many people who think that 40 years would be an acceptable lifespan, and most people would probably like to live to 100 if they got there in good health, but as…

These are the same people who complain that they would be bored if out of work for too long. I personally have so many personal or passion projects that I would like to undertake, but don’t have the time for, that I’d happily fill a few lifetimes with interesting things to do. Of course, there’s a difference between a few lifetimes and thousands of years or immortality.

I am the same way, have a bunch of things I would love to do, but don't have the time. Once thing I noticed is that at least in the past 2-3 decades there are more and more fields opening up to DIY projects that used to have a really high bar for entry in the past. DIY biology, robotics and other electronics and many others. So I think by the time we could fill one lifetime with projects, things would pile up enough to take another few lifetimes :)

Re: With greater longevity, the quest to avoid infirmities of aging is more urgent

#180
post #148

Somewhat off-topic, but I always thought the most prominent real-life reenactment of The Fox and the Grapes was all of the media and thinkpieces that people have written about how living for an extended period of time would be just _awful_. You wouldn't find many people who think that 40 years would be an acceptable lifespan, and most people would probably like to live to 100 if they got there in good health, but as…

"I could understand the impulse people would have to not extend their lives if that's truly what they wanted, but the almost _cultural_ belief that seeking immortality is Bad and Wrong, something only pursued by cartoon villains and insane emperors ..." I've spent some time thinking about this. Bear with me ... First, let me agree with you that I am flabbergasted by the notion that one would have nothing but ill-use…

So essentially, you are suggesting that people should die earlier, because you don't like old people :)
Post reply on HN