#41

How does this solve dementia?

#42

I think it depends on someone’s mood, if you’re in blue bro mode or neutral then yeah the world is going to hell, if you’re happy, then it’s well, maybe not going to hell… That might be the biggest problem of all.

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#43

Not sure, who you are directing this question to. In my mind when you rearchitect a human body substantially, you will have new babies born from this point on with the new traits not present in human species today. These traits will include resistance to dementia and ability to surpass current 120 year lifespan limit. Having these new features backward applicable to already alive humans is another more complicated story. I am optimistic that it can be done, though, and in next couple of decades too if there is a focus and funding from governments.

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#44

I put together a sketch on some key thoughts on that here (please click on the actual link to see with better formatting and the whole post):

Would love to hear your thoughts @John_Hemming

#45

In your view, is this about the world’s / subset of peoples perspectives/notions/feelings?

On the actual ethics do you think something actually bad/wrong/immoral?

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#46

Yes, the world.

Me personally I don’t care, like I said I’m all for the city-state with Anduril drone swarms, and along with that mass brainless clone farms, as far as the eye can see. I probably won’t get access to it though because of $$$ barrier. But it might enter the market elsewhere if it happens there.

However, most people are normal with a normal level of intelligence and openness to new experiences and ideas. That is also dropping over time, which will lead to more xenophobia over time. The window of opportunity is closing, so it will only become harder not easier over time to do that in the U.S., which makes the case for city states. For citizens of similar values to congregate and build their farms and drones and everything else under the sun. I don’t see where I’m wrong with this.

#47

There are clearly some huge ethical issues to work out here. That said as proof of concept, this could be undertaken in the lab mouse very quickly. You just need a very skilled neurosurgeon to do it. Perhaps somebody like Sergio Canavero?

#48

@Neo , I agree with this from Karl Pfleger. You’re promoting the Backup strategies so I assume that you are pessimistic about the SLOW & REJUV. I don’t know why. There seems to be plenty of progress on his list. As he says…
“The field understands many causally pathological aging changes (damage types) at the molecular level & already has feasible plans & proof-of-concept demonstrations for reversing them. We know most exacerbate others. Which should we expect progress on in coming decades?”

Your points are worthwhile as an idealistic, theoretical thought experiment but as a practical matter, it’s much more likely that we will progress in a step-by step approach by attacking the weak links in longevity in order, one-by-one. That’s what the funding supports. We don’t know how far that will take us in extending lifespan, but maybe farther than you think.

Partial cell reprogramming and Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells (iPSCs) have a lot of promise as does all epigenetics, but it’s hugely complicated and the translation from mouse to human may be very difficult.

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#49

Head transplants were done in dogs years ago and maybe monkees(?) but they died after 8 days from the Immunosuppressants. And I don’t think they could move but they were alive.
Animal rights killed it from happening again.

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#50

Interesting. Compared to gene therapies and Car-T like therapies, growing a body should probably actually not be that expensive from a variable cost perspective (mostly just some calories, water and temperature control?).

And patents would only last for 20-ish years, while many part of the world would probably not even recognize such patents…

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#51

Storage, security (from anti-brainless clone activists or terrorists), R&D costs, license, surgery… fees, profit, these all add up. Of course it’s going to be worth working at Walmart and saving every penny to get it as long as someone’s on a good dose of SSRI’s and Jhana’s to tolerate the job meanwhile.

#52

That’s why I mentioned the lab mouse where individual mice can be essentially genetically identical. Hence, no need for immunosuppressants.

#53

I agree, @Neo 's optimism is minimizing the cost, complexity and social/political resistance.

But they still haven’t perfected reconnecting the spinal cord, hence they can be alive but quadriplegic.

#54

All the good points. We can’t solve everything here with what’s needs to be fixed in our society including giving people meaningful jobs and purpose in life. On positive note there is adoption curve, which will bring the prices for such procedures down and make it accessible to more. This is true with any other advanced intervention discussed on this forum including epigenetic reprogramming.

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#55
  1. Karl Pfleger looks great for a vegan, how old is he?
  2. His beef against metformin is that it has no data showing benefit in healthy population.
  3. His beef against rapamycin is from mice to human, the benefit may not translatable.
  4. He is rich and healthy so he can wait. But for many, the wait is too long.
  5. He takes very little supplements other than Vit D and Fish Oil. And 1 gram of Creatine.
  6. Not sure what he is working on. He does a lot of podcasts but not having a wide following however. I take he works like fund manager for biotech investing? He has not been very specific about what he is working on.
  7. The latest trend seems to be a) stem cell in real treatment; b) partial cell reprogramming instead of using Yamanaka factors which lose the cell identity entirely. It is also the approach that Karl Pfleger leaning towards.
  8. Bottom line: thus far, he is got nothing that we can use.
#56

I’ve not asked him how old he is - I will the next time I see him. You can do the math; it looks like he did his PHD around 2001 and joined Google in 2002: Karl R. Pfleger - San Francisco | LinkedIn

He is the largest longevity biotech focused angel investor in the SF Bay Area… and that is his focus. He isn’t trying to reach a broad audience; his audience are the scientists studying the biology of aging, and the people doing startups in the space. When there is a longevity science or longevity biotech event in the SF Bay Area, he’s usually there.

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#57

So he is around 55 to 60? He looks his age but very good shape for a vegan (good arm muscle). Next few years are going to be exciting as with AI, the discovery process is going to be so much faster. Sam Altman also invested in his own longevity company. Any idea what he is working on?

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#58

Your response does not say dementia would be solved, but perhaps reduced a bit.

#59

Not sure I follow, there are at least two ways it could help with “solving dementia”

What (if anything?) about type 1 and/or type 2 paths towards “solving” dementia do you not see as reasonable possibilities?

#60

They are separate steps. Doing a brain transplant of a demented brain is not going to fix the brain.

I think solving the biochemistry problems is a better area for effort.

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