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Japanese scientists develop vaccine to eliminate cells behind aging

japantimes.co.jp

261–270 of 382 posts

Re: Japanese scientists develop vaccine to eliminate cells behind aging

#261
post #257

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s an interesting idea, but how would you measure happiness? For example coal pollutes, so at first glance maybe coal plants should get a negative happiness index. Then some plants close, and heating costs go up and people get cold because they can’t afford the electric heat in their homes. Are they happier without the coal? Would they be happier with the coal and the pollution? Does this solve the problem in a way…

> It’s an interesting idea, but how would you measure happiness? This (the measuring, at least) is mostly a solved problem. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Happiness_Report

> This (the measuring, at least) is mostly a solved problem.

I disagree. I’m familiar with the world happiness report. I don’t think that would be an adequate measurement to replace GDP with.

Re: Japanese scientists develop vaccine to eliminate cells behind aging

#262
post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wtf is this deathcult bullshit. Maybe in 2A Jesusland death is the only option, but in other parts of the world there are taxes and proportional representation and euthanasia. Yes, there are problems, but saying that death (and more specifically aging with all of its shitty slow painful consequences) is great (okay, you said necessary), because it somehow "solves" other problems is a logical fallacy. Plus, "actually"…

I think parent comment is going along the lines "Altered Carbon" tv series ( and novels ) thread. For instance, if eternal life could be bought, the first one to buy it could be the richest man in the world. Parent is not happy with the idea of an inmortal ruler. In the mean time, I would like to stay younger for longer. And older people are still afraid of death, even if they are not healthy.

> immortal ruler

term limits.

what I'm trying to say (besides that the Takeshi Kovacs trilogy is aweeeesome!) is that these problems are already here, and are already solvable. regular dictators consolidate their power in a 5-10 years. corporations/memes/ideologies/religions are already immortal. and so on, and so on.

aging and death is basically a disease of the poor. the solution is not more aging/death, but less poverty.

Re: Japanese scientists develop vaccine to eliminate cells behind aging

#263

Imagine the costs of a vaccine that would make you immortal in the US? Surely not everyone would be able to afford it. But then we could implement an immortality lottery, to give everyone a shot. That could be the devious slogan: “everyone gets a shot”. Devious because not everyone does, of course. If you win you get the vaccine and live forever, but your friends and family aren’t included.

Imagine the financial output in USA extended by immortality. Like the Covid vaccine, it would be free to anyone. A government would be foolish to miss out on the increased financial output of it's citizens.

But of course a vaccine against aging isn't a ticket to immortality. Death comes in all forms, if you vaccinate against aging, another leading cause of death will come along.

Re: Japanese scientists develop vaccine to eliminate cells behind aging

#264

1. Removing senescent cells extends life by 30-40% with huge quality of life improvements in the last 25% of the life (relative to control), in mice. This isn't an elimination of all aging, but quite a valuable thing regardless. Eventually, other causes of aging would kick in and still cause death, without a single senescent cell in your body (e.g. DNA methylation). 2. I believe all governments should create Warpspee…

In an ideal world. Even if we achieve longevity with this approach, we can't use it for everyone. People need to die now more so than ever, where would we put them otherwise?

The whole idea behind the current pandemic is that people need to die, via vaccines, or the virus, or the media.

Re: Japanese scientists develop vaccine to eliminate cells behind aging

#265
post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is well known and very well established. We don’t like experimenting on humans. It’s kind of ghoulish and evil. I get what you’re saying but it’s safe to assume that this concept is already baked into almost everyone’s discussion on matters like this.

>It’s kind of ghoulish and evil. Experiments on humans happen very frequently. They're called "clinical trials".

After a huge amount of non human testing.

Re: Japanese scientists develop vaccine to eliminate cells behind aging

#266
post #63
post #32

> The team, including Juntendo University professor Toru Minamino, confirmed that mice administered with the vaccine showed decreases in the zombie cells, medically known as senescent cells, and in areas affected by arterial stiffening. By now this has become a trope. "Researchers develop new treatment for {UNTREATED_DISEASE}" ... in mice. Mouse models of human disease are very limited in their predictive ability. Th…

I am curious, why are they still using mice and not tiny monkeys? If they are using some animals, why use random mice and not a primate? Any specific reason other than tradition?

Funny enough, The Economist just had an article about this and an attempt to make lemurs a model species: https://www.economist.com/science-and-technology/a-tiny-prim...

Re: Japanese scientists develop vaccine to eliminate cells behind aging

#267

1. Removing senescent cells extends life by 30-40% with huge quality of life improvements in the last 25% of the life (relative to control), in mice. This isn't an elimination of all aging, but quite a valuable thing regardless. Eventually, other causes of aging would kick in and still cause death, without a single senescent cell in your body (e.g. DNA methylation). 2. I believe all governments should create Warpspee…

In an ideal world. Even if we achieve longevity with this approach, we can't use it for everyone. People need to die now more so than ever, where would we put them otherwise? The whole idea behind the current pandemic is that people need to die, via vaccines, or the virus, or the media.

Why do people need to die now more than ever ?

Re: Japanese scientists develop vaccine to eliminate cells behind aging

#268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe instead of maximising GDP we should maximise happiness and there's plenty of low hanging fruit. I mean people are still starving to death and dying of preventable diseases...

It’s an interesting idea, but how would you measure happiness? For example coal pollutes, so at first glance maybe coal plants should get a negative happiness index. Then some plants close, and heating costs go up and people get cold because they can’t afford the electric heat in their homes. Are they happier without the coal? Would they be happier with the coal and the pollution? Does this solve the problem in a way…

If people can look and feel young for a very long time they will be very happy…

Re: Japanese scientists develop vaccine to eliminate cells behind aging

#269

Sign me up for this the second it is available. As an aside, to spite anti vaxxers I’m on a mission to get every vaccine I can. I want my bloodstream to be like the Library at Alexandria before it burned down.

that sounds pretty cringe to get unnecessarily medical treatments just to spite people. even if its harmless in the end. have you considered just getting the ones you need and not worrying about anti-vaxxers?

Re: Japanese scientists develop vaccine to eliminate cells behind aging

#270
I feel like one of the problems with anti-aging tech is that even if you can stop aging for yourself, the people you love or care about will still grow old all around you, and wither and die. Then you realize the real goal is not really to stop aging, it’s to stop all change, to freeze the world in a state of familiar comfort for as long as you can, to waste days laying out under a tree on a sunny day, guilt free, knowing that no time is being wasted, and that there is absolutely still time for everything in this world.
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