• Log in with Facebook Log in with Twitter Log In with Google      Sign In    
  • Create Account
  LongeCity
              Advocacy & Research for Unlimited Lifespans


Adverts help to support the work of this non-profit organisation. To go ad-free join as a Member.


Photo
- - - - -

Avoiding Past Mistakes in Longevity Advocacy - by Anne Corwin, 2007

longevity advocacy life extension movement life extension community

  • Please log in to reply
2 replies to this topic

#1 Avatar of Horus

  • Guest
  • 241 posts
  • 291
  • Location:Hungary

Posted 09 April 2013 - 07:33 PM


I would like to call attention to this older article of:

Anne Corwin
Avoiding Past Mistakes in Longevity Advocacy
2007 january
http://www.existence...-longevity.html

I consider that it is generally good, and there are some important parts and sentences in it.

I even think that it or a slightly modified version might be placed to the longecity front page.

Two related topics from the forum:
Sunday Evening Update - Anne Corwin
Robert Anton Wilson predicted "immortality"

Edited by Avatar of Horus, 09 April 2013 - 07:37 PM.


#2 Mind

  • Life Member, Director, Moderator, Treasurer
  • 18,981 posts
  • 2,002
  • Location:Wausau, WI

Posted 09 April 2013 - 08:17 PM

Thanks for the suggestion Avatar of Horus. We are commissioning article this year and perhaps Anne would be willing to update her blog post for a front page article.

#3 Avatar of Horus

  • Topic Starter
  • Guest
  • 241 posts
  • 291
  • Location:Hungary

Posted 05 April 2014 - 05:54 PM

Thanks for the suggestion Avatar of Horus. We are commissioning article this year and perhaps Anne would be willing to update her blog post for a front page article.


An update would be possibly good, but what I meant is more of a slightly modified text, like a shortened version, in which the focus is put on those "important parts and sentences",
like these:
where she writes about the increasing optimism among the experts can lead to feeling of complacency and false hope (emphases are mine):

""Expert opinion on longevity has grown steadily more optimistic every time it has been surveyed, because the lab results are better every year. In 1964, a group of scientists was polled on the question and predicted chemical control of aging by the early 21st Century."
...
the pattern is familiar. I don't doubt that plenty of people with dreams and aspirations similar those of present-day transhumanists probably read this essay back in 1978 and found that it bolstered their sense of hope. And while there's nothing wrong with hope, part of me can't help but wonder if putting too much stock in predictions, and in the sheer optimism of various people working in the health field, can lead to a kind of complacency. "
...

"But when we talk about and promote longevity science, it's important to remain cogent of the fact that there is no time to sit back and wait for things to fall into place."
...
"So, what can present-day longevity advocates make of all this? Well, for one thing, it is important to remember that negative data is still data -- we can look back now and identify what didn't work, try to figure out why it didn't work, and avoid making the same mistakes again. For instance, if this generation (meaning, the set of people presently alive) is to make any strides in developing effective longevity medicine, we cannot afford to underestimate our vulnerability. For all intents and purposes, we aren't much closer to superlongevity than we were in 1978 -- yes, we have more and better treatments for specific ailments, some of them age-related, but we don't have the ability yet to clean up the accumulated bodily damage that leads to the manifestations of age-related health decline and eventual death. This means that even those of us still in our twenties and thirties aren't in much of a better spot, longevity-wise, than our parents were at our age. And that is, and should be, a sobering thought for anyone who would call themselves a life-extensionist."

and then it can function as a wake-up call type article.

sponsored ad

  • Advert




Also tagged with one or more of these keywords: longevity advocacy, life extension movement, life extension community

0 user(s) are reading this topic

0 members, 0 guests, 0 anonymous users