10 replies to this topic

[The Immortalist]

http://www.theaustra...6-1225860263165

In the 8th and 25th paragraph the article mentions the Methuselah foundation. The article is mostly about centenarians and the compression of morbidity.

The reason why I think it's not spreading the word about life extension properly is that the article said nothing about a possibility of having indefinite lifespans. A compression of morbidity mind set may be harmful for our cause because if the general population and our governments don't have the end goal in sight (indefinite lifespans) we may not get there as fast as we could have. It's kind of like how sending out satellites into earths orbit was not the end goal of space exploration, and compression of morbidity is not the main goal of the Movement for Indefinite Life Extension (MILE).

On a side note, the goal of indefinite lifespans in my opinion should not be the ultimate goal in our sights. After indefinite lifespans is achieved, we should work to cure death itself and make ourselves totally impervious to death, as close as possible to Immortality. I'm not a delusional dreamer, I think anythings possible if you try hard enough.

Edited by The Indefinite Lifespaner, 06 May 2010 - 01:26 PM.

[DairyProducts]

To be fair, a casual look at the M-prize website (which I'm sure this is what the journalist did) doesn't really mention indefinite lifespans, so I wouldn't blame the press on this one. I'm guessing (someone correct me if I'm wrong) the reason they do this is not to scare off people that would be skeptical about living forever. The M-prize knows that the people who want to live forever will donate to it regardless of how they sell it on the website, so its more about making their message have a broader appeal to attract more donations. Whether this is a correct assumption or not is up for debate.

Also the article mentions ways to live longer -
“Vitamin D, resveratrol and fish oil. Lose 5 pounds [2.3kg]. Travel less."
I get the first four, but what about traveling less makes you live longer? Less chances of getting killed during transportation?

[brokenportal]

Heres an essay written in response to the compression of morbitiy mindset: http://www.imminst.o...ion-t40361.html

[The Immortalist]

To be fair, a casual look at the M-prize website (which I'm sure this is what the journalist did) doesn't really mention indefinite lifespans, so I wouldn't blame the press on this one. I'm guessing (someone correct me if I'm wrong) the reason they do this is not to scare off people that would be skeptical about living forever. The M-prize knows that the people who want to live forever will donate to it regardless of how they sell it on the website, so its more about making their message have a broader appeal to attract more donations. Whether this is a correct assumption or not is up for debate.

Also the article mentions ways to live longer -
“Vitamin D, resveratrol and fish oil. Lose 5 pounds [2.3kg]. Travel less."
I get the first four, but what about traveling less makes you live longer? Less chances of getting killed during transportation?

I don't mean living forever I mean curing aging. On the Methuselah foundations website I'm sure it says that their main goal is to cure all age related diseases and aging entirely (or imply it in some form).
I also didn't like it when they used this sentence in paragraph 8 "Aside from science fiction and laboratory research" it was as if they were just dismissing it or something. Also putting the words science fiction and laboratory research so close together may implant some negative ideas towards laboratory research in an uninformed readers mind and subconsciously relate the two together.

Edited by The Indefinite Lifespaner, 06 May 2010 - 05:53 PM.

[Da55id]

To be fair, a casual look at the M-prize website (which I'm sure this is what the journalist did) doesn't really mention indefinite lifespans, so I wouldn't blame the press on this one. I'm guessing (someone correct me if I'm wrong) the reason they do this is not to scare off people that would be skeptical about living forever. The M-prize knows that the people who want to live forever will donate to it regardless of how they sell it on the website, so its more about making their message have a broader appeal to attract more donations. Whether this is a correct assumption or not is up for debate.

Also the article mentions ways to live longer -
“Vitamin D, resveratrol and fish oil. Lose 5 pounds [2.3kg]. Travel less."
I get the first four, but what about traveling less makes you live longer? Less chances of getting killed during transportation?

I don't mean living forever I mean curing aging. On the Methuselah foundations website I'm sure it says that their main goal is to cure all age related diseases and aging entirely (or imply it in some form).
I also didn't like it when they used this sentence in paragraph 8 "Aside from science fiction and laboratory research" it was as if they were just dismissing it or something. Also putting the words science fiction and laboratory research so close together may implant some negative ideas towards laboratory research in an uninformed readers mind and subconsciously relate the two together.

Hi - Can you give a link to the science fiction quote location?

[The Immortalist]

To be fair, a casual look at the M-prize website (which I'm sure this is what the journalist did) doesn't really mention indefinite lifespans, so I wouldn't blame the press on this one. I'm guessing (someone correct me if I'm wrong) the reason they do this is not to scare off people that would be skeptical about living forever. The M-prize knows that the people who want to live forever will donate to it regardless of how they sell it on the website, so its more about making their message have a broader appeal to attract more donations. Whether this is a correct assumption or not is up for debate.

Also the article mentions ways to live longer -
“Vitamin D, resveratrol and fish oil. Lose 5 pounds [2.3kg]. Travel less."
I get the first four, but what about traveling less makes you live longer? Less chances of getting killed during transportation?

I don't mean living forever I mean curing aging. On the Methuselah foundations website I'm sure it says that their main goal is to cure all age related diseases and aging entirely (or imply it in some form).
I also didn't like it when they used this sentence in paragraph 8 "Aside from science fiction and laboratory research" it was as if they were just dismissing it or something. Also putting the words science fiction and laboratory research so close together may implant some negative ideas towards laboratory research in an uninformed readers mind and subconsciously relate the two together.

Hi - Can you give a link to the science fiction quote location?

I was talking about the article I linked to in my first post. They never actually said anything about the Mfoundation and laboratory research being associated with science fiction, I was commenting on how the words Laboratory research and science fiction were in the same sentence. In my personal interpretation of the text it was as if they were dismissing it. What do you think?


the quote was on paragraph 8 in the link in my first post in this thread. Here is the full quote:

"Last month the Methuselah Foundation, a US outfit dedicated to extending human life, announced a new prize to accelerate advances in regenerative medicine. Outside the pages of science fiction and research laboratories, the planners and pen-pushers imagine how we can best accommodate the increase of elderly people."

What do you all think of this quote?

[niner]

"Last month the Methuselah Foundation, a US outfit dedicated to extending human life, announced a new prize to accelerate advances in regenerative medicine. Outside the pages of science fiction and research laboratories, the planners and pen-pushers imagine how we can best accommodate the increase of elderly people."

What do you all think of this quote?

I think that you're being overly sensitive to the wording. The pages of SF and laboratory research are the only places where one might find really strong LE at this time; if you intend to go beyond what you can do with CR, that's the reality. The second sentence of the quote sounds like they are committing the Tithonus error, worrying about hordes of new "elderly people". I haven't read the whole article, but I've learned not to expect much from the popular media.

Edit: OK, I just read it. The article isn't even about life extension; it's about centenarians. The mention the MF briefly in two places, and seem to treat it favorably. I think it's good. They let people know the MF exists, and that it offers research support and prizes for LE. I don't see anything wrong with that, and I take back the part about the Tithonus error. They weren't doing that.

Edited by niner, 19 May 2010 - 08:24 PM.

[The Immortalist]

"Last month the Methuselah Foundation, a US outfit dedicated to extending human life, announced a new prize to accelerate advances in regenerative medicine. Outside the pages of science fiction and research laboratories, the planners and pen-pushers imagine how we can best accommodate the increase of elderly people."

What do you all think of this quote?

I haven't read the whole article, but I've learned not to expect much from the popular media.

Don't worry the popular media will catch up to this cause in the near future.

[niner]

I haven't read the whole article, but I've learned not to expect much from the popular media.

Don't worry the popular media will catch up to this cause in the near future.

Oops, I missed your reply and edited my post above. I think you're right about the media picking up on LE in a big way, as soon as we start seeing some significant advances.

[brokenportal]

I know we all get a little excited about these kinds of little mentions, but it seems it may be even more significant than we might imagine. These mentions are tremendous. I would be willing to bet that they almost always lead to 2 or more, many times bigger interviews, mentions, donations, etc... A lot of people really do see things like this, its not just a couple hundred thousand all together. I am constantly running into new people, strangers, people in other websites and forums, that have heard about this cause through any of a variety of things like this. Thanks for reporting it. Its good to compile as many of them that happen as we can in the forum here.

[e Volution]

Sometimes she’ll attribute her perkiness to the cup of parsley tea she’s drunk daily since 1949 on the advice of a dietician

Good old dietitians of the late 40's! I might have to give this one a go, can't hurt!