Extropy Institute Contact

Extropy Institute’s media presence spans from widely circulated magazines and newspapers to internationally televised programs and headline news. Known as an authority on the future of technology and culture, the social and business implications of technology on society, and the economics of scenario planning, Extropy Institute has a reputation for addressing key issues up front and head on. Highly revered conferences on the advances of the future have put Extropy on the map. From cutting edge tech magazines such as Wired to well established newspapers such as The New York Times and The London Observer, the philosophy of Extropy has become mainstream.

Articles in Wired and Reason about Extropy Institute's Extro-5 Conference on Biotechnology
held at the University of California, Berkeley.

The High Cost of Living Forever
by Giovanni McClellan
2:25 p.m. 9.Aug.99.PDT, Wired
BERKELEY, California

That was the consensus at the Extro 4: Biomedical Futures Conference held this weekend at the University of California.

The problem is that the "fountain of youth" has been part of the human psyche for so long that many people think of life extension research as science fiction, said Dr. Gregory Stock, the director of the Program on Medicine, Technology, and Society at UCLA Medical School.

The medical establishment has yet to see life extension as a goal unto itself, said Stock, who spoke at the event that was sponsored by the Extropy Institute -- a nonprofit group seeking to overcome limits on human evolution.

Stock said that several active areas of medical research could open up significant advances in understanding the causes of aging.

But few researchers are focused on using hormone therapy -- or our newfound understanding of the human genome -- to fight death in the long term, rather than just the short term.

"Most of the work being done now is focused on specific diseases," Stock said. "It could happen very quickly if we did it as a war on aging."

Before seriously declaring war on death, researchers would probably need to agree on several goals -- and perhaps even set monetary prizes for solving them. For example, if researchers could reduce the rate of telomere shortening, they could then determine the extent to which this effect causes aging. Telomere shortening is the process by which cells lose genetic accuracy over time as they divide. Another milestone would be understanding why some laboratory mice can live up to twice as long with calorie-restricted diets.

But even research prizes seem to be a long way off. Stock said he sent an anti-aging research proposal to the Ellison Medical Fund, an organization funded by Oracle CEO Larry Ellison with US$100 million of his own money.

Not only did the director of the fund reject the proposal, Stock said, but they told him they would make sure Ellison never saw it.

"Obviously the Social Security Administration is going to be concerned because ... their calculations are going to be thrown out of whack if we live for 200 years," Bradbury said.

Researcher Cynthia Kenyon warned attendees not to discount the opinions of the so-called naturalists, or environmentalists who regard life extension work as irresponsible in a world that is already overpopulated and environmentally strained.

Extending the lives of some people could exacerbate human overpopulation, said Kenyon, a professor of biochemistry and biophysics at the University of California, San Francisco.

However, at least in the short term, any possible effect is utterly dwarfed by the problem of human reproduction. The human birthrate must be cut no matter what, she said. People who want to extend human life, she said, must also be conscious of population control and environmental protection.

Furthermore, Kenyon said older people who acquire wisdom and perspective can be very valuable in a society. People who think they are going to live well past 100 should be very receptive to protecting the environment and putting off childbirth.

"It is so ingrained in the human spirit not to want to get old and die," Kenyon said. "I think it is possible to be socially responsible but still think that [this] is something to strive for."

______________________

Extropy Institute 10709 Pointe View Drive Austin TX 78738 www.extropy.org info@extropy.org Tele: 512.263.2749