If you think about it longevity researchers work under a conundrum, they work on sciences that they themselves might not be able to benefit from. Aubrey better get hustling with more ambitious millionaires because the projected timescale of longevity research is out of synch with the lifespan of most of the current researchers. Here's my reasoning, most of the best work of scientists occur between the ages of 30-60 yrs. From what I've seen Aubrey, and many of the other researchers, are in their 40's-50's. As time goes by not only physical activity, but also mental problem-solving suffers from the rust of aging. Take a look at Einstein. In his thirties he was banging out paper after paper while working as a patent clerk, by the time he hit his sixties he was problem solving at a leisurely pace, just tampering here and there with his failed Unified Theory.
What happened to Einstein is what happens to nearly all humans. The edge was taken away. If you think of it, one of the overlooked affects of aging is the loss of sexual competitiveness. Take a look at the timescale of most of the best researchers. The human body seems to start to truly wither away once sexual potency, or rather the ability to sexually reproduce, diminishes. The reason for being healthy and strong is to sexually reproduce. Now most males seem to lose that aggressive, talkative edge roughly around their fifties through sixities, incidently the same period of time when sexual potency wanes drastically. I know I'm simplifying things, but ultimately as age takes away the basic capability to reproduce (and thus compete) then it appears that the rest of the body loses its reason for being. It loses its glow. Then all sorts of problems start to move in such as cancer, osteoporosis, diabetes and so on. What I'm trying to point out is that we tend to think of people in terms senesence, when in fact we should also be looking at quality of life. So just because Einstein lived into his seventies, his real impact occured in a narrow window from 30-60 yrs. Einstein is only a simple example when you consider the multitude of older people with debilitating ailments that drain their mental efforts. Imagine if Stephen Hawking was as fit as a footballer, and saved the energy spent treating his stubborn body?
Now researchers in Aubrey's age, who are the ones to first truly champion life extension, are careening towards that sexual dead zone for human beings. As that hole approaches and as the causes of death increase will we have ample research to reignite the old champions? Nobody can predict the effects of aging on their own personality, but considering the Einstein model a lot of these researchers will find themselves pulling away from the scientific battles that seemed so much easier in their youth. Then you have to ask, who can carry on the torch? The most optimistic arrival for true life extention capabilities is 30 years at best. Reasonably, this tech will probably be as barbaric as radiation therapy was in its start. This is not counting the wide variety of diseases that bloom out of nowhere every ten years with unpredictable pathogenic abilites. Nor the fact that at that time probably only 5% of the population might be able to afford it - and perhaps keep it for themselves. Nor the caustic effects of political bureaucracy that hampers progress based off of public superstitions or from political cookie-jar theft. Also this tech probably will be useful to people who have aged well and don't have crushing disorders such as Lou Gehrig's disease. I know all of these possibilites have been speculated upon. The point I'm making is that there are hidden dangers beyond death that threaten to abandon the best brains in the field to the sizzle of deterioration. So with most researchers in their mid forties, that leaves only twenty positive years of aggressive, healthy problem-solving with, to put it bluntly, ball-sack confidence. Within that time they will have to deal with all of the problems mentioned above, in particular the bureaucrats as the technology moves into the ravenous public sphere. To me this twenty year period seems like a race against time because the originators of the cause, who at this moment have the clearest scientific vision of the future, are very likely to suffer outrageous pressures as the technology becomes more complicated both from a technical and economic perspective. Even today, Aubrey has dedicated more than generous amounts of time to public awareness for a researcher of his standing. Pretty soon it will come to the point where he will become a full time public speaker and rob time away from the lab. I think that these scientists need more allies. It is unfair to expect them to do all the marketing, website creation and trumpet blowing when their window for effective research is bound by natural human rusting. In order to even conceive of the 30 year timeline to the 'singularity', which I see as a point where a computer can maximize the juggling of millions of variables at a magnitude beyond even a nation of Chinese people and use this ability for human life-affirming results, the scientists are gonna need allies. They are going to need millionaires to help them rub arms with the international elite. Imagine getting Saudi money behind life extension, with the promise to the Saudi king to rule the oil sands forever. Without the millionaire club to take up the promotions, fund rookie researchers, not to mention creating an economic pacifying effect against political mudslinging then the singularity will become more of a star in the sky.
I assume most of the people on this site are in their 20-30s, right behind the ages of the frontrunners. We are responsible as much as they are for the well-being of the research. Every negative out there pushes away the date for ecomonically feasible life extention/protection. We may not have biotech expertise, but I'm sure many of you have relatives or friends in television or radio. Maybe you know someone with a philanthropic bent. Maybe you know a millionaire. For instance perhaps you know a CEO of a video game company, you could easily suggest to them to place banners of the SENS institute within the plot of the game. It can't hurt, they do it with coca cola, why not life extension? Without allies, without life extention as a lobby in the public eye then the 30 years will become 130. With that the immortality researchers, along with all of us, will be destined for the horrors of the cryo-chamber.
