Freedom from Aging
Imagine a world where death is either a choice or an accident. A world where aging is not synonymous with decline and decay. This is not a mere science fiction fantasy, but rather the very technical goal of Dr. Aubrey de Grey and his associates at the SENS (Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence) Research Foundation.
Dr. de Grey views aging like any other common medical issue — another matter to be overcome. The breakthrough moment for the anti-aging organization that he co-founded, came when Dr. de Grey realized that the ways in which cells accumulate damage over time is in fact a limited set of outcomes. Over the course of the past century’s research into cellular injury during aging, there seemed very little expansion of the biological paradigm. He took this to mean that there were most likely very few remaining possible culprits and one could safely begin to systematically resolve repair routines for each aging=associated cellular dysfunction.
Where other gerontologists have traditionally been rooted in avoidance of cellular damage, the key SENS strategy is damage repair itself. Today, de Grey and the SENS foundation fund basic research into just a few of these molecular pathways, while hopefully acknowledging that the private sector will likely pick up the slack in due time. Critical topics for Dr. de Grey and SENS at present are stem cells, telomeres, mitochondrial health, cancer, tissue atrophy, matrix stiffening, and accumulation of cellular waste and aggregates within the body.
Dr. de Grey has summarized these strategies in his book, Ending Aging: The Rejuvenation Breakthroughs that Could Reverse Human Aging in Our Lifetime. The title of the book, like the overall SENS project’s mission statement sounds extraordinarily ambitious and aspirational. And it is. But once you dig a bit deeper into de Grey’s work, you find that the actual tactics and scope are not so radically different from contemporary gerontology researchers, like Dr. Nir Barzilai.
Both camps acknowledge that aging related decline is a problem worthy of consideration. Both Barzilai and de Grey express interest in extending health span — the enjoyable, productive years that precede decline. Both camps acknowledge that cellular damage is the culprit and we would all be served well but avoiding it where possible. The crucial difference is that Dr. de Grey does not believe aging is a necessary human condition. If he’s correct, we’re headed for a real-life encounter with the fantasy of immortality.
The quest for immortality has long captured the imaginations of thinkers, artists, and philosophers. Extropian futurists like Kurzweil have championed the idea that mind-computer interfaces may provide the means of uploading our waking consciousnesses one day. Elon Musk has recently founded a firm, Neuralink, dedicated to brain-machine interfaces, which may provide the infrastructure necessary to move in the extropian direction. And moving in the right direction is the shared commitment by seekers of immortality, in general.
Whether and especially when we will be able to achieve the absolute point of immortality is not an interesting question to extropians and SENS researchers alike. What matters is that we approach the task with a can-do attitude that will allow measurable and meaningful progress toward that end in our lifetimes. All those seeking immortality, either by flesh or by circuit board, insist that as a tactical attractor, — that is something worth of orientation toward — immortality is paramount.
Ever notice the medical symbol on the side of an ambulance, with a snake winding up a rod? This rod of Asclepius is supposedly derived from the story of the Greek god who gained notoriety for raising the dead and was in turn rewarded by Zeus with immortality. If this is truly the endgame of medicine, we have to ask —are we really prepared for a world without the threat of aging?
Modern medical symbolism, including the Rod of Asclepius above, points to the intrinsic desire for human immortality. Image credit: wikimedia.
This line of thought presumes that we actually have a choice. Modern philosophers like Agnes Callard and L.A. Paul would argue that until we experience the transformation, we cannot know if it is truly desirable and so traditional modes of reasoning fail. But let’s assume that the end of aging is inevitable. How will this change our existence?
For starters, one can imagine that humans will evolve to place a much greater emphasis on long-term existential threats. The back-up plan of off-Earth colonization may take an industrial front seat to pharmaceuticals. Left with nothing but time, humans may begin to explore multiple sequential career paths becoming meta-experts after having exhausted a single discipline.
It would be satisfying to believe that indefinite life will breed a patience that could put a damper on inter-group conflict, leading to a profound unification of the species. On the other hand, it is not clear that vices of greed and power-lust are likely to disappear through exposure alone. Instead, we may find that our contemporary concerns are only amplified in an ageless society.
Much like a chance encounter with a hypothetical intelligent alien species, the end of aging must profoundly reshape our civilization. However, if we don’t muster the dignity and resolve to get along with one another in the present milieu, it is unlikely that such earth-shaking events will do much more than deepen the wounds. It’s therefore imperative that we continue to seek a just and peaceable world on all scales and fronts in the meantime.
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