Don't think about eternal life
Think about never getting sick again
Aubrey de Grey is working to cure aging whether you like it or not
Dylan Love, TNW
It is in this vein that Aubrey de Grey would like you to consider his work. The bearded biomedic gerontologist is a star of the scientific community, a constant source of loud headlines about immortality. Di Gray wants to increase a person's life expectancy so significantly that death as a phenomenon can become a thing of the past. This idea has been a key part of his work for 20 years.
De Grey started as a programmer at the Department of Genetics at Cambridge University in 1992, where he maintained databases of genetic information on fruit flies. In 1999, he published a book entitled "The Mitochondrial Free Radical Theory of Aging", where he first outlined the key ideas that made him famous: preventing damage to mitochondrial DNA is supposed to significantly prolong human life. The idea was so well received that the following year Cambridge awarded him a doctorate. In 2007, Di Gray outlined the main points of his work in an interview: "People are machines, and aging is the wear of a machine, the accumulation of damage that can potentially be corrected."
Earlier, de Grey published a paper punching a huge hole in a notoriously difficult mathematical problem that has baffled mathematicians since 1950. As one of the founders of the anti-aging research team of the SENS Research Foundation, the 55-year-old scientist spends a lot of time traveling, presenting his ideas at conferences around the world. The meaning of his statements is as follows: we have reached the essence of what is called death.
Our paths crossed at one of these conferences, The Future is in the City, in Moscow. Di Gray talked about his work and what it's all about.
– When we talk about using science and technology to improve a person, as a rule, the term "transhumanism" pops up. Why don't you like this word?
AUBREY DE GREY: I think this word is counterproductive. If you work in these areas, develop technologies, then you don't want other people to be afraid of what you are doing. You want them to understand the potential value of your work, and the best way to achieve this is to emphasize the relationship of these technologies with things that already exist.
In my case, it is absolutely necessary to emphasize that this is just medicine. And it is no less attractive than the one that exists today, and there is no reason to be afraid of it. "Transhumanism" is a scary word, and I think it's better to use words that won't scare people. We are not creating a new type of person.
I would like to ask people a question: would you like to be sick? Or maybe you would like to get sick in the future? No one will ever answer these questions "yes", and that's all you need to know about it: no one wants to get sick, and no one wants to die.
How do you feel about the word "immortality?"
EDG: "Immortality" has a well-established meaning: zero risk of death from any cause. People understand that this is basically impossible, so if you use this word to describe what I'm trying to do, then you kind of imply this result. The word dominates the conversation when I address the media because they have to sell newspapers. There are responsible journalists among them, but some use the "sensational language".
– You have introduced the term "age-related trance". Could you explain it for those who have never heard of it before?
EDG: I went to a hypnotist's performance as a Cambridge student. The artist invited someone to the stage, put them into a deep trance and convinced them of some ridiculous facts, making them believe that their right hand is the left. Without going into details, the hypnotist asked them to touch their left elbows with their "right hand", and of course they could not do it.
If you ask a hypnotized person why he cannot perform such a simple action, his explanation will be quite grammatically correct, but at the same time absurd from the point of view of logic. "Age–defying trance" is a term I coined when I started talking to people about stopping aging, just to find out how much they screw up in this regard. I was thinking – how can perfectly reasonable people think like that?
– In what form will your research be carried out when they reach the level of practical medicine? Are we talking about injections, surgical interventions – something like that?
EDG: All this will not be very different from medical genetics. Perhaps these will be operations at first, but then they will be replaced by stem cell therapy and the like. Therapy will be improved and less invasive. Basically this will be done by injection. Of course, something very complicated will be injected, but from the patient's point of view, it will be a simple injection.
– In the book "The Age of Spiritual Machines" Ray Kurzweil writes: "death gives meaning to our lives. This gives the importance and value of time. Time will become meaningless if there is too much of it." What does this mean for you?
EDG: This is complete bullshit. This is such an obvious excuse to put up with aging and submit to it, "because it is necessary." If people don't have an understanding of how to deal with aging, then it makes sense to assume that people will age and die – until they get hit by a truck. Therefore, you either live your life with all those terrible things that can happen to you in mind, or you can try to accept the transience of your life and hope for the best. And this approach was normal until I got down to business.
Kurzweil lacks the knowledge of biology to have a full understanding of the specifics, but he does not pretend to do so. In any case, he talks about the ultimate goal in much the same way as me. He is definitely interested in eternal life. We are united by a common aspiration.
– Who hates you? Do you have any religious opponents?
EDG: I annoy some experts in the field of aging biology. They think I'm complicating their work, that I'm giving our subject a bad reputation by making exaggerated statements about what we can achieve and how quickly. But most people don't think that way anymore. They understand that I am bringing new money into our sphere, and this is good.
As for religious groups, no. I can't be in the crosshairs of fanatics, and I think this is largely due to the fact that people quickly realize that it's about health. Keeping people healthy is God's job. This is the relief of suffering. It would be a sin not to work on it.
– What can people do today to prepare for the longevity therapy of the future?
EDG: They can write me a big check. For a long time it was a question of money. When I started 20 years ago, I had three problems. I needed a plan to combat aging (which for some reason did not exist yet), I needed to convince scientists around the world to take up the implementation of this plan, and I had to find money so that this could happen. The latter has been a problem for a whole decade.
The good news is that this is the only problem. So far, there have been no reasons to think that the damage-fixing approach that we followed earlier will not work. New technologies, such as CRISPR, provide us with opportunities to reach the goal faster. The only thing was, I didn't have any money.
– What are you ready to tell about your health regime? Do you take any special medications?
EDG: I was very lucky with genetics. I've had the good fortune to pass every possible test five times in the last 15 years for everything you can imagine. According to the results, I am always a ridiculously young, healthy person. I should be humble and say, "If it's not broken, don't fix it." I'm just one of those happy people who can eat and drink exactly what they want, without any consequences. I'm not a role model in this case.
– What are the consequences for people who will live much longer? What are we going to do about overpopulation?
EDG: Let's be clear – we won't have millennials for at least 900 more years. This is important to remember, because a lot can happen during this time. In particular, various technologies will be developed, and in them lies the answer to most questions. It all comes down to things like renewable energy, artificial meat, desalination. These things reduce environmental pollution and increase the carrying capacity of our planet.
– What are the other mandatory items on your anti-aging list?
EDG: Each type of damage has its own approach to correction. For each of them, we can determine where we want it to work in cell culture, then make it work in mice, then move on to clinical trials. There will be stages involving a combination of approaches that we will work on in parallel.
Translation: Anastasia Poznyak, portal "Eternal Youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru