Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence--a project whose goal is to eliminate the one disease that all people are born with, and that kills with 100% certainty (if something else doesn’t first): old age.
The scientist behind the project, Aubrey de Grey, makes a compelling argument that it is our duty to pursue this research over all others. Honestly, I feel like an idiot for not immediately getting involved more directly with this project. Yet something stops me. Perhaps it’s that Professor de Grey looks like this.
In all seriousness, if this research is real, it is logical both from a socially responsible perspective (saving lives) and a self-interested one (the possibility of extending my lifespan tenfold) that I help out if I am able (and I do believe I could learn the skills and knowledge needed to help).
However, radical life reorganization is not something that should be undertaken lightly. And as a Taurus, I am particularly resistant to change. (Of course, astrology is a total sham, but that’s a topic for another day.) Before taking on such a project, surely I want to verify its authenticity, which leads to my main concern…
To quote de Grey: “The SENS strategy…purports to have all the characteristics that should make it persuasive: it’s detailed, it’s thorough and it’s all firmly based on established experimental work in the various relevant areas of biology. So…where’s the catch? Why…don’t my colleagues come out and advocate the work that I advocate?” His response is that these ideas represent a completely new paradigm that most are exceedingly reluctant to consider, consciously or otherwise. He also says that most scientists are not in a position to understand the biology. This explanation, while fairly reasonable, is unfortunately insufficient for a non-expert like myself to accept his word.
The dilemma is that becoming enough of an expert to evaluate the work requires me to make the shift, and I won’t make the shift until I know whether the work is valid. So for now, I pacify my psyche with the thought that perhaps my current software project, VisBio, is relevant enough to the biology that it may prove useful to the biogerontologists, if any, working directly on the problem. And though part of me knows that this claim is nothing more than a platitude, it’s not enough for me to reevaluate the situation seriously. And that really bothers me.
I’ve got nothing to say,
I’ve got nothing to do,
All of my neurons are functioning smoothly
Yet still I’m a cyborg just like you.
I am one big myoma that thinks,
My planet supports only me,
I’ve got this one problem: will I live forever?
I’ve got just a short time to see.
--Bad Religion, “Modern Man”