Getting old, dying and other endangered ideas
A long-awaited documentary examines human mortality. The controversy is more about separating science from pseudo-science than about longevity
This topic is fraught with dissent: scientific opinion on homeopathy and creationism seeming relatively clear-cut by comaprison: claims for a prize of $20,000 to disprove the more contentious claims aired in the film were rejected by a panel of respected scientists.
The webpage for the movie To Age or Not to Age which opens in New York City on July the 16th is here.
If you find this trailer whets your appetite for exploring these issues and you can’t wait to see the movie, this next video is by one of the more controversial figures who speaks in the film.
Aubrey de Grey – In Pursuit of Longevity
This is the website of Aubrey de Grey‘s SENS foundation.
The website of the Singularity Hub blog is where you can find blog postings giving details of his talk: it is in fact an interesting news site with regular coverage of many innovation topics including robotics and biotechnology.
The Singularity University website gives details of their venue and organisation (based in the NASA Ames Research Park, in California) which hosted this talk and hosts many other events of interest to those following developments at the leading edge of technology.
I find this part very interesting
“As with any ambitious pioneering technology, the first step is to define the problem, or perhaps to describe the problem, in a manner that is indicative to identify how promising a given approach of solving the problem might be, and after some deliberation this is definition of aging that I came up with a number of years ago which I think is particularly helpful for doing that, to identify why we are able to do something about aging and specifically how we might be able to do it”
And I really was wondering if there have been former approaches to identify the right definition for aging before that approach of Prof. de Grey, and I could find this definition in Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ageing
“Ageing (British and Australian English) or aging (American and Canadian English) is the accumulation of changes in an organism or object over time. Ageing in humans refers to a multidimensional process of physical, psychological, and social change. Some dimensions of ageing grow and expand over time, while others decline.”
But even after making successful definitions of aging, has any methods been discovered to prevent it?
Ageing is a natural thing. Everyone ages. Some people, may find ways to slow it down or use alternative methods to look younger, but its basically the same thing. You still age. Ageing should not be feared or avoided, it should be nurtured, because ageing is not a bad thing. it should be considered a blessing. because with age comes wisdom and with wisdom comes happiness.
That is well said, we all should embrace the circle of life. The animals in the forest sure do. We all do age whether we age gracefully or not depends on how we treat our bodies. And regardless ageing is a process that happens just like time passes each ticking second. The true blessing is we are all alive and well and can tell someone else about our living experience as we age. Who would have though that aging could be such a big deal.