Research into ageing is a good thing, consider it a health and quality of life problem, if we could delay or even remove some of the worst effects it would make literally billions of people have a better life.
But this is also like flying cars, fusion and now AI, it is always 10 or 20 years away and when the report is about "researches are saying" or "researchers are looking to" you can just ignore because it is either PR or someone desperately trying to fill their science news writing quota for the week.
The thing with medicine is that it is not that straight forward. On one hand yes the rich always have better healthcare, but on the other hand it is at least one of the areas where technology really did spread and improve far enough to be accessible to the general pop, yes even if by general we mean western and clearly divided by economic class. These days some treatments and drugs are even cheaper in the third world. Not that this is a good thing, but it is not straight forward to say X is expensive and inaccessible in Y country therefore it must be the same everywhere else.
I am ok if Bezos or Musk gets to enjoy a slightly better life at 80 even it means millions or even billions get the same chance as well, and yes obviously I'm confident this will be the case, again even the most expensive treatments are available for millions of people worldwide today. I'll even be honest and say I'm a bit selfish here and say I hope some sort of treatment for the elderly is available 30 or 40 years from now.
The marxist in me says the power these people have is not determined by their persona, but by their material wealth and obviously their class. That wealth will be inherited either by their descendants or plundered and split among the rest of the capitalist class. One less capitalist dead at the age of 70 or 100 doesn't mean anything when their 25yo failson inherits the business or it is bought by some other mega corp anyway.
The worst thing about ageing research is the association with tech/crypto bros. Otherwise I think the moral argument over quality of life in favor of it wins out over the concerns.
I honestly can't even remember the context, but I was talking with a guy who was literally doing anti-aging research centered around the decline in production of certain proteins that regenerate cell tissue. He felt very convinced that they'd have some kind of human-ready treatment in another ten years.
Then there's Cuba's research into neuroalcim, trailblazing treatment of Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease. We've got a litany of treatments for various forms of cancers that have turned it from a death sentence into a chronic condition. The FDA just approved a treatment to delay the onset of Type I diabetes.
Medical progress is being made. We can and should be a society that's expecting to live longer than our parents and grandparents. But even that isn't "age reversing" so much as "age delaying". There are so many other fucking problems, both internal and environmental, that a single solution can't fix. Modern research grants you the opportunity to live somewhat comfortably into your 90s, but its not going to keep Tom Brady playing football into his 120s.
Research into ageing is a good thing, consider it a health and quality of life problem, if we could delay or even remove some of the worst effects it would make literally billions of people have a better life.
But this is also like flying cars, fusion and now AI, it is always 10 or 20 years away and when the report is about "researches are saying" or "researchers are looking to" you can just ignore because it is either PR or someone desperately trying to fill their science news writing quota for the week.
deleted by creator
The thing with medicine is that it is not that straight forward. On one hand yes the rich always have better healthcare, but on the other hand it is at least one of the areas where technology really did spread and improve far enough to be accessible to the general pop, yes even if by general we mean western and clearly divided by economic class. These days some treatments and drugs are even cheaper in the third world. Not that this is a good thing, but it is not straight forward to say X is expensive and inaccessible in Y country therefore it must be the same everywhere else.
I am ok if Bezos or Musk gets to enjoy a slightly better life at 80 even it means millions or even billions get the same chance as well, and yes obviously I'm confident this will be the case, again even the most expensive treatments are available for millions of people worldwide today. I'll even be honest and say I'm a bit selfish here and say I hope some sort of treatment for the elderly is available 30 or 40 years from now.
The marxist in me says the power these people have is not determined by their persona, but by their material wealth and obviously their class. That wealth will be inherited either by their descendants or plundered and split among the rest of the capitalist class. One less capitalist dead at the age of 70 or 100 doesn't mean anything when their 25yo failson inherits the business or it is bought by some other mega corp anyway.
The worst thing about ageing research is the association with tech/crypto bros. Otherwise I think the moral argument over quality of life in favor of it wins out over the concerns.
deleted by creator
I honestly can't even remember the context, but I was talking with a guy who was literally doing anti-aging research centered around the decline in production of certain proteins that regenerate cell tissue. He felt very convinced that they'd have some kind of human-ready treatment in another ten years.
Then there's Cuba's research into neuroalcim, trailblazing treatment of Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease. We've got a litany of treatments for various forms of cancers that have turned it from a death sentence into a chronic condition. The FDA just approved a treatment to delay the onset of Type I diabetes.
Medical progress is being made. We can and should be a society that's expecting to live longer than our parents and grandparents. But even that isn't "age reversing" so much as "age delaying". There are so many other fucking problems, both internal and environmental, that a single solution can't fix. Modern research grants you the opportunity to live somewhat comfortably into your 90s, but its not going to keep Tom Brady playing football into his 120s.