Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Engineering An End to Aging

Posted by timothy on from the bullets-stop-aging dept.

Reason writes "Biogerontologist Aubrey de Grey has put forward a biological engineering plan to end human aging and co-founded the Methuselah Mouse Prize in recent years. Now he is finally getting some of the public recognition he deserves in an excellent David Stipp article at Fortune Magazine. If you ever wondered exactly how to go about engineering away the 50 million deaths due to aging that occur each and every year - and how to bring about a sea change in the scientific establishment - then this is the place to start. As an added bonus, I don't think you'll find a more succinct (and utterly British) answer to overpopulation objections to life extension than the one at the end of this article!"

5 of 986 comments (clear)

  1. No! such a tragedy! by British · · Score: -1, Redundant

    50 million deaths due to aging that occur each and every year

    Won't somebody put a stop to this!

  2. don't you just love how... by dijjnn · · Score: 1, Redundant

    every week (sometimes more often) someone posts on slashdot a link to an article that says, summarized, "nanotechnology is the only thing that will save us! but, oh, it's so great, it will definitely save us!"

    it's like a bunch of little machine supermen. but years from now, when it becomes practical, slashdotters (if they still exist) will resurrect all the arguments we've got against technologies like rfid and refuse to submit.

    it's funny, that way.

    --
    ~dijjnn
  3. Tapping the ego isn't an argument by Cranx · · Score: 0, Redundant

    Tapping the ego and calling upon people to "go ahead and die" if they feel extending human lifespan is a bad idea is a childish statement, and the sort you would expect from a fanatic, not a scientist. There's no way earth can sustain our current growth rate indefinitely, let alone what would happen is people increased their lifespans. Indefinitely extending human lifespan is a death sentence for earth itself.

  4. Re:no by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Redundant

    I forget what the ends of the DNA molecules are called

    telomeres

  5. Why we all must die..... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Redundant

    Aside from GOD, in which many people don't believe (I do however) the biggest reason is population. Can you imagine what life would be like if there were births everyday but no deaths. This world already is in a sad state with overcrowding, unemployment, hunger, and natural resources in low supply (ie water, clean air, oil, etc..).
    But, as I have learned a long time ago, people just wont get it until it happens, and then it will be too late. How would you take something like that away once you have given it to them.