De Grey Talks Anti-Aging at SXSW
The Forrest Four-Cast: March 1, 2020
On March 18 at SXSW, Aubrey de Grey the Chief Science Officer at SENS Research Foundation delivers a solo presentation titled “Truly Ending Aging with Comprehensive Rejuvenation.” One of the world’s foremost experts on life extension, his research interests encompasses all types of self-inflicted cellular and molecular damage that constitute mammalian aging and the design of interventions to repair and/or obviate that damage. We bounced a few questions off of de Grey about some of these fascinating concepts that he will cover in his upcoming talk.
What will be the main focus of your Wednesday, March 18 solo presentation at SXSW 2020?
I’ll give an overview of what aging is and why it is realistic to expect it to be defeated by medicine within the next few decades. I’ll also explain why the various knee-jerk reactions that aging is some sort of blessing in disguise are misguided.
I am sure that you get asked this all the time — but how long do you want to / plan to live?
It’s an idiotic thing to have an opinion about, because one can change one’s mind in the future as a result of new information, such as “hmm, I seem to be healthier now than I expected 20 years ago that I would be in 20 years.” It’s like having an opinion about what time you want to go to the toilet next Sunday.
New challenges like the coronavirus make it seem like we are trending towards shorter lives (not longer). Set us straight on this one.
The more progress we make against aging, the more we will care about other threats to life. Vaccine development is a criminally underfunded area of research at present, and that’s because hardly anyone in power in the OECD dies young of infections. Once the #1 cause of death is reduced or eliminated, others will become more prominent by default and we will work harder to overcome them too.
In terms of what we know in 2020, what’s your best / easiest / simplest recommendation for life extension? For instance . . .eat less, sleep more, exercise regularly, don’t skydive?
The last of those, mainly — but also, even more effectively, do whatever you can to hasten the research. If you’re wealthy, support it financially. If you’re not, well, you probably know people who are wealthier than you, so educate them and get them to support the research. There is no question that progress is still severely slowed by lack of funds.
What other kinds of habits do you personally follow to try to maximize your lifespan?
I honestly don’t do anything — partly because if it ain’t broke don’t fix it (I am biologically very young for my age) and partly because it’s more important to me to hasten the defeat of aging than (e.g.) to get enough sleep.
How do you see this field of life extension evolving and changing over the next few years?
It’s already exploding. Five years ago there was hardly a hint of a private-sector component to it, now there’s a burgeoning industry. Next up is the emergence of serious policy changes arising from realization that a post-aging world is coming.
Do you think society will more fully embrace the half human / half machine model in the future? How does the cyborg movement fit into the life extension movement?
Non-biological solutions to medical problems are already accepted in some forms (glasses, cochlear implants etc) and I’m sure their use will broaden, especially as a result of increasing miniaturization.
We can essentially now create digital clones of ourselves. Is a digital clone the same thing as eternal life?
The only people who have persuaded themselves that it is the same thing are people who have given up on plan A.
There are a lot of things wrong with today’s world. In your mind, does that dampen people’s desires to live longer lives?
Certainly it does. That’s only because people think they are more powerless to make the world a better place than they actually are, but it’s still how people think.
Why not just have lots of children? Isn’t passing along your DNA to future generations the same thing as eternal life?
The only people who have persuaded themselves that it is the same thing are people who have given up on plan A.
If you could pick any time-period in human civilization to live (or have lived), what time-period would it be?
2100.
Do you believe in reincarnation?
I’m agnostic about that, as about all aspects of religion, but I’m not planning to do the experiment.
Do you consider yourself a spiritual person? If so (or if no), how has that impacted your life’s work on life extension?
No, not really. I have a healthy sense of wonder about the awesomeness of life, and maybe that has spurred me to help make it even more awesome, but that’s about it.
You can either have 10 million dollars — or you can have the ability to go back in time to your 10-year-old self and re-start your life there. Which of these two options would you choose?
I’d take the money. I don’t think I would do anything dramatically differently if I had my life over again. Even my choice of one career and then another worked out pretty well.
When the time finally comes, how do you want to die?
“When?” I’m not planning on dying.
Hugh Forrest serves as Chief Programming Officer at SXSW, the world’s most unique gathering of creative professionals. He also tries to write at least four paragraphs per day on Medium. These posts often cover tech-related trends; other times they focus on books, pop culture, sports and other current events.
