Ending Aging: The Rejuvenation Breakthroughs That Could Reverse Human Aging in Our Lifetime |...

Ending Aging: The Rejuvenation Breakthroughs That Could Reverse Human Aging in Our Lifetime | Aubrey de Grey, Michael Rae | Living 1000 years.

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Ending Aging: The ...

	Ending Aging: The Rejuvenation Breakthroughs That Could Reverse Human Aging in Our Lifetime Aubrey de Grey, Michael Rae St. Martin's Press, 2007 - 400 pages average customer review:based on 24 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

MUST WE AGE?
A long life in a healthy, vigorous, youthful body has always been one of humanity?s greatest dreams. Recent progress in genetic manipulations and calorie-restricted diets in laboratory animals hold forth the promise that someday science will enable us to exert total control over our own biological aging.
Nearly all scientists who study the biology of aging agree that we will someday be able to substantially slow down the aging process, extending our productive, youthful lives. Dr. Aubrey de Grey is perhaps the most bullish of all such researchers. As has been reported in media outlets ranging from 60 Minutes to The New York Times, Dr. de Grey believes that the key biomedical technology required to eliminate aging-derived debilitation and death entirely?technology that would not only slow but periodically reverse age-related physiological decay, leaving us biologically young into an indefinite future?is now within reach.

In Ending Aging, Dr. de Grey and his research assistant Michael Rae describe the details of this biotechnology. They explain that the aging of the human body, just like the aging of man-made machines, results from an accumulation of various types of damage. As with man-made machines, this damage can periodically be repaired, leading to indefinite extension of the machine?s fully functional lifetime, just as is routinely done with classic cars. We already know what types of damage accumulate in the human body, and we are moving rapidly toward the comprehensive development of technologies to remove that damage. By demystifying aging and its postponement for the nonspecialist reader, de Grey and Rae systematically dismantle the fatalist presumption that aging will forever defeat the efforts of medical science.

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Only if you're interested

After reading several, emotionally-charged, negative reviews, I felt I should write something rational to try to help someone who might be interested in reading this book.
If you're truly interested in the reasoning behind de Grey's optimism about human rejuvenation, you should DEFINITELY read this book.
If you're looking for lightweight entertainment, this book is not for you.
Also, let's be real: unless you're a qualified, competent, current, medical scientist, there's no way for you to decide whether de Grey's reasoning is sound.
It's hard to believe that all the reviews found here on Amazon.com were written by such scientists. I'm not even going to try to tell you if I agree with de Grey's science or not since I am not a scientist and truly have no idea if he's correct.
Nevertheless, if you're interested in the topic and have a strong desire to learn how de Grey thinks, this is the book for you. It is lengthy and detailed and covers a lot of ground. I enjoyed reading it. That's why I gave it 5 stars.
Frankly, I doubt that one person in 1000 (if that!) could truly understand and evaluate what de Grey is talking about so, unless you happen to be that person, don't expect to go to work in gerontology after reading this book and don't write a review that makes blanket statements about the claims in this book.
If you like to read and have an interest in these topics, you'll find it worthwhile. If you enjoy reading Ray Kurzweil's books, you'll probably enjoy this book.
Also, if you just want to encourage people like de Grey and Kurzweil to keep exploring, buy this book.
If you believe de Grey, Kurzweil and other 'futurists' are evil hucksters, then you should provide some evidence of it and don't buy their books. Ad hominem attacks against the authors of books don't help people decide if they want to read the book.
If you're so knowledgeable about science that you can shred the premise of this book, then you should be writing your own book on the topic and working in the field.
If you're not qualified to make that analysis or if you're so biased against futurists that you can't think straight, then there's not much point in writing a nasty review. It only reveals your own failings.

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Living 1000 years.

Ending Aging: The Rejuvenation Breakthroughs That Could Reverse Human Aging in Our Lifetime
This is a fascinating book and a must read for every scientist and engineer. The thesis is reasonable and well reasoned by a very capable author and scientist. Every ancient culture reports a golden age before the flood in which humans lived as long as 1000 years. In my computer architecture course I ask the students to estimate the number of bits the human brain can store, evalutating the neuron as an analog element representing many bits, and also including chemical synapses. The answers range from 10**17 to 10**19 bits. Then assuming that color vision of motion is the most challenging brain function I have them estimate how many teraflops it would take a supercomputer to equal that function. Now, if the brain functions at that level 16 hours a day and rests (sleeps) 8 hours a day how long will it take to fill it. The answer is about 1000 years! But what about the motivation? Naturally, almost everyone wants to live a little longer (in good health, of course), but 1000 years? Remember the Ancient Sybil at Locarno who asked the gods for immortality and got it. Her cry after only 500 years was: "I want to die." Of course, with Dr. Aubrey's theraputic strategy one could simply discontinue the anit-aging therapy and then die gracefully in about 50 years.
Peter C. Patton
Professor of Engineering

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A future landmark?

Ending Aging may one day be regarded as having made history. And it is fun, provoking, and informative.

Its starting point itself is eye-opening: aging isn't built into our bodies, it only results from a gradual breakdown that evolution hasn't found efficient to equip us against, picking reproduction as the preferred path for gene survival. De Grey adds that this breakdown can be fixed. Science will soon be able to engineer eternal youth, he asserts - yes, not just slow aging down but actually set back the clock. This would apparently require fixing decay in seven broad areas, for which he details the solutions. To me, a complete layman, four of the proposed solutions seem in the process of advanced medical research, two look farther off, and one, dealing with cancer, sounds somewhat unpalatable if perhaps credible (requiring regular cell transplants to a multiplicity of organs).

De Grey is not originally a biologist, but a computer programmer. He says his outsider status is an advantage. Sounds suspicious? Perhaps, but he published revolutionary research on the DNA of mitochondria (the part of the cell that generates the energy on which we live) and their role in aging; this was peer-reviewed and acclaimed by the scientific establishment. He was awarded a PhD for it at Cambridge, where he works.

Ending Aging says its goals can be achieved in 25 years. Considering the impotence of big pharma and the propensity to blunders of public government (viz. the stem cell controversy, which is detailed in the book), this sounds doubtful. But incredibly, one big hurdle to pursuing the requisite research seems to be that a number of people don't actually want to end aging. This is where De Grey turns from scientist to advocate. Apparently, the fear is that ending aging would cause grave disruption to the environment and existing social structures. So what?

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

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