I stumbled across this book, published in 1968, quite by accident. It proved to be both amazing and frightening.
It was amazing because so many of the therapies Prehoda foresaw have come to pass. It is frightening because Prehoda sees a greatly extended lifetime as being right around the corner. This was in 1968. Reading this book makes one realize how slowly science really proceeds.
An entire chapter is devoted to the lack of needed governmental funding in research on aging. Prehoda's criticisms are identical to those made by longevity enthusiasts today. The more things change, the more they seem to stay the same.
Some approaches Prehoda describe are no longer discussed. Making sleep more totally refreshing by sleeping in "zero gravity" in saline solutions seems to have been forgotten. However, his ideas that injections of "renewal cells" (taken from fetal tissue) is a close parallel to stem cell therapies envisioned today.
His reflection on the history of rejuvenation in literature, religion and mythology is fascinating. I suspect he gleaned a lot of this material from a book listed on page two of this resource guide.
Prehoda was apparently one of the leading futurologists of his day. He wrote books on that subject. He also was one of those who helped to freeze the first cryonaut, Mr. Bedford, and wrote a book on cryonics in 1969.
I guess I was surprised by this book because I never thought of "futurology" as having so much "history".
