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> before we have the technology to cure aging, which many people predict to be about 15 years from now, Ray predicts 12 This number seems oddly small and speci

by gpt5 4y ago

> before we have the technology to cure aging, which many people predict to be about 15 years from now, Ray predicts 12 This number seems oddly small and specific? If aging is "cured" in humans in 12-15 years, you would expect it to be already cured today in animal models. Is there such an example where we were able to make an animal immortal?

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
jeroenvlek 4y ago
My mom used to work at an institute for Vitality and Aging and the leading professor there liked to say that "the first person that will reach a 1000 years of age has already been born"
- highwaylights 4y ago
  It wasn't Aubrey De Grey was it? In any case I'm skeptical for the same reasons as the parent. Until we can do it to a mouse reliably, it's at least 20 years away. The other thing that people miss is we have cures for a whole lot of things that people still die from in many parts of the world. If this technology was available, I don't see any encouraging precedent that it would become cost effective enough in any normal time horizon to be available to normies like the rest of us.
  - jeroenvlek 4y ago
    No, this was at a less famous institute in Leiden, The Netherlands
xiphias2 4y ago
There is, partial reprogramming using Yamanaka factors. The problem is that they can turn some cells into stem cells if they are applied too long, so while they work amazingly well, they have a side effect of causing cancer. There are 2 ways to fix the problem: have a cure for cancer or use other proteins instead of Yamanaka factors that only do partial reprogramming. There's research going on in both direction, though the second solution could have more research in it (the $2B injection to Altos Labs by Jeff Bezos can help though).
macrolime 4y ago
Not exactly, but there are promising experiments that may or may not turn into something in the near future. There are competing hypotheses for what's causing aging and how it may be "cured". Among the more "simple" ones is that aging is programmed, for some reason like to ensure genetic diversity and that new genes can get a good chance to survive and reproduce. That's the thing with young blood seemingly doing some rejuvenation on older individuals. This has not yet resulted in huge lifespan extensions of any animals. Whether this is just because the procedures needs to be tweaked a bit or the hypothesis is wrong should become clear in the next few years I think.

by gpt5 4y ago

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

jeroenvlek 4y ago

My mom used to work at an institute for Vitality and Aging and the leading professor there liked to say that "the first person that will reach a 1000 years of age has already been born"

highwaylights 4y ago
It wasn't Aubrey De Grey was it? In any case I'm skeptical for the same reasons as the parent. Until we can do it to a mouse reliably, it's at least 20 years away. The other thing that people miss is we have cures for a whole lot of things that people still die from in many parts of the world. If this technology was available, I don't see any encouraging precedent that it would become cost effective enough in any normal time horizon to be available to normies like the rest of us.
- jeroenvlek 4y ago
  No, this was at a less famous institute in Leiden, The Netherlands

xiphias2 4y ago

There is, partial reprogramming using Yamanaka factors. The problem is that they can turn some cells into stem cells if they are applied too long, so while they work amazingly well, they have a side effect of causing cancer. There are 2 ways to fix the problem: have a cure for cancer or use other proteins instead of Yamanaka factors that only do partial reprogramming. There's research going on in both direction, though the second solution could have more research in it (the $2B injection to Altos Labs by Jeff Bezos can help though).

macrolime 4y ago

Not exactly, but there are promising experiments that may or may not turn into something in the near future. There are competing hypotheses for what's causing aging and how it may be "cured". Among the more "simple" ones is that aging is programmed, for some reason like to ensure genetic diversity and that new genes can get a good chance to survive and reproduce. That's the thing with young blood seemingly doing some rejuvenation on older individuals. This has not yet resulted in huge lifespan extensions of any animals. Whether this is just because the procedures needs to be tweaked a bit or the hypothesis is wrong should become clear in the next few years I think.