Can We Really Fight Aging?



With all his optimistic predictions it is easy to write off de Grey as a quack. However, this assumption simply isn’t true by the very definition. A quack makes unfounded outlandish promises about a medical treatment, hoping to sell you worthless herbs and modern day “potions”.



Aubrey on the other hand sends a message of hope but promises nothing and is quick to admit that there aren’t any adequate anti-aging treatments known. He isn’t the one writing sensationalist headlines like “We Could Live to 1,000 in the Future”, it is the media. Even then, the headline reads “could” and that is the whole point. Perhaps we could do it, if the scientific establishment tried hard enough for long enough.



What skeptics often overlook is Aubrey de Grey is all about shifting our attitudes about aging. Before the research can happen on the grand scale mainstream science must also embrace the dream of defeating aging. Wealthy investors are equally important to fund the work.



A major roadblock lies in the fact that every person that tried to find the fountain of youth historically failed and died along with everyone else. Ko Hung, Roger Bacon and Juan Ponce de León didn’t want to accept the fact that life is temporary, but it didn’t stop them from dying. This viewpoint was pointed out by S. Jay Olshansky in his article entitled “Don’t fall for the cult of immortality”.



Failure in the past does not mean that success is impossible in the future. Flight was attempted for centuries and seen as “impossible” to many until the Wright brothers built the world’s first successful airplane. Perhaps a skeptical outlook is well suited to some but even skepticism cannot deny that immortality is possible, even if it is to happen far beyond our lifetimes.



Conclusion



Aubrey de Grey likes to sip on pints of beer dreaming of the society of immortal, god-like beings as proven by a recent documentary about his life and work. He has the hugest aspirations but doesn’t have a tiny fraction of the resources need to follow his vision through.



Maybe the problem isn’t that Aubrey is crazy, it is that the world we live in isn’t crazy enough. If scientific credibility is attained by playing it safe, hopefully the next generation will prize the notion of the mad scientist that is willing to test anything. Sometimes it takes a little dumb luck to get it right.

