Joho the Blog
An Entry from the Archives

Aubrey de Grey is talking about postponing aging. He thinks the "war on aging" is only a decade a away and it "may be a very short war."

He suggests some milestones: when we know all the elements of aging in mice, when we know how to fix them, etc.

He draws a simple diagram:

Metabolism ——> Damage ——> Pathology

Gerontology intervenes before the damage but, Aubrey says, they intervene too early. Geriatrics kicks in after the damage of aging has begun. Engineering is the way to fix aging, he says. Don't try to interfere with metabolism. Instead fix the damage.

He says there are only seven deadly types of damage involved in aging: our organs lose cells, nuclear mutations, mitochondrial DNA mutations, cell senescence, age crosslinks, extracellular junk, and lysosomal junk.

He says that not only are we confident that this is the complete list but "I know how to fix them." All seven. He adds, "In principle."

He wants to "break the log jam" by appealing to philanthropists to spend $100M/year for 10 years. He wants to know if anyone in the audience knows people who can fund it. People laugh good-naturedly.

In response to a question: It will be a world without children.