How Silicon Valley makes Death Optional (1)

Nikita Statsenko, Rusbase

Ted Friend, author of The New Yorker, tells how the US plans to fight aging, what steps have already been taken and whether high-tech research worth billions of dollars will be able to succeed in making death optional.

We publish a translation of the first part of the article.

On a warm March evening in Mandeville Canyon, high above the rest of Los Angeles, Norman Liar's living room was filled with powerful people eager to learn the secrets of longevity. When the first speaker of this symposium asked who among those present would like to live up to two hundred years, maintaining good health, almost all hands rose: venture capitalists kept themselves in good shape to keep vigor and energy; scientists kept themselves in good shape because they read – and in some cases conducted – research on calorie restriction; Hollywood stars kept themselves in good shape because... it is clear why.

When Liz Blackburn, the Nobel Prize winner for her work in genetics, was answering questions, Goldie Hawn, sitting regally on a soft sofa, purred: "I have a question about mitochondria. I was told about a molecule called glutathione, which strengthens cell health..."Glutathione is a powerful antioxidant that protects cells and their mitochondria, which provide them with energy. In Hollywood, some even call it the "God molecule."

However, in the case of an overdose, glutathione can drown out some of the regenerative processes of the human body, leading to liver and kidney problems or even to rapid and potentially fatal peeling of the skin. Blackburn calmly suggested that a varied and healthy diet was best, and that a single molecule would not be the solution to aging.

Elizabeth Helen Blackburn / Photo: DiscovHER

Nevertheless, the message of this evening was that the answers, and maybe even a full-fledged solution, are already somewhere very close. The party launched the "Big Study on Healthy Longevity" of the National Academy of Medicine (National Academy of Medicine's Grand Challenge in Healthy Longevity), which will allocate at least $25 million for awards for breakthroughs in this field.

Academy President Viktor Zau rose to pay his respects to several scientists present. He praised their work on enzymes that help control aging, on the isolation of genes that control life expectancy in various litters in dogs, and on the technique by which an old mouse surgically connects with a young one, divides its blood and rejuvenates within a few weeks.

Jun Yoon, a doctor who runs a health insurance hedge fund, announced that he and his wife had contributed the first $2 million to fund this study. "I have an idea that the aging problem is coded," he said. "And if something is encrypted, it can be broken." To the growing applause , Yun continued: "And if you can break the code, you can crack it!"

This is a serious issue: more than 150 thousand people die every day, most of them from diseases related to aging. Nevertheless, Yun believes, as he told me, that if we crack the code correctly, "thermodynamically, there should be no reason why we cannot stop entropy indefinitely. We can stop aging forever."

Dr. Jun Yoon / Screenshot from YouTube video/Palo Alto Prize

Nicole Shanahan, the founder of the patent management business, announced that her company will control the patents in the field of longevity, which Yun is going to work on. "I'm here with my dear Sergey," she said, referring to her boyfriend Sergey Brin, the co–founder of Google. – Yesterday he called me and said: "I'm reading that book, Homo Deus, and it says on page 28 that I'm going to die." I asked: "Is it written about you personally?" He replied, "Yes!"" (In the book, the author, Yuval Noah Harari, discusses Google's anti-aging research and writes that the company "most likely will not solve the problem of death in time to make Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin immortal"). Brin, sitting a few feet away, nodded ambiguously to the audience: "Yes, I was the one who was told that I was going to die; no, actually, I'm not going to die."

After Moby spoke out in favor of vegetarianism, Zau gave the floor to Martina Rotblatt, founder of the biotech company United Therapeutics, which intends to grow new organs from human DNA. "It is absolutely clear that with the help of technology it is possible to make death optional," said Rotblatt (she has already ordered a backup version of her wife Bina, a robot with a digital copy of consciousness named Bina48).

The problem of aging has long lacked the kind of publicity that was raised around HIV and breast cancer; as a species, we are weak in mobilizing against some delayed collective disaster, for example, climate change. The old are resigned, and the young do not yet realize that they will actually grow old sometime. However, Rotblatt suggested that this evening would be a turning point. Addressing Zau, she proclaimed: "It is very gratifying that the representative of the establishment, the head of the National Medical Academy, says: "We also want to make death optional!"" The audience was filled with the conviction that such events could ignite a flame, that they, who are in the hall, can decide the fate of all those who are outside its walls.

Martina Rotblatt / Photo: Jill Knight

Andy Conrad took the microphone to challenge the statement of the main emphasis on increasing the maximum life expectancy, which currently stands at about 115 years. Conrad is the executive director of the research company Verily, which is owned by Google's parent company Alphabet. Like most of the scientists in the room, he wants to help people get a little more years of "quality life." Conrad asked if "longevity" was the wrong word? Isn't that a "long and good life"? Or "long-term health care"? The biologists nodded with relief.

Still energetic at 94, Norman Liar closed the evening with the words: "Seven years ago I wrote an experimental script for the TV show "Guess Who Died?", telling about pensioners in a nursing home. And only today I found out that it will be removed after all." The age of the public was catching up with him: by 2020, for the first time, there will be more people over 65 on Earth than people under 5. Liar continued: "In general, what I want to offer. Now we have a platform to bring some of the things that were said here today to a wide audience." Stormy applause – the message will spread!

But what message? Is death optional? Or will she just have to wait a bit?

To be continued.

Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru  18.04.2017