[extropy-chat] NY Times article about Aubrey de Grey

[Damien Broderick]

> http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/01/arts/01AGE.html

Almost typically tedious journalism on the topic, perhaps not as jocose and
`those wacky boffins'-ish as some, although quick with this sort of empty
implication of absurdity or impiety: `Many in the audience seemed unafraid
of amending the presumed laws of nature'. The closing paragraphs do seem to
me to come close to implying a sort of scam:

< Although Mr. de Grey got his listeners talking and thinking, there was no
indication that their interest meant they had signed on to the program. Mr.
Diffie [`Whitfield Diffie, chief of security for Sun Microsystems, a pioneer
in encryption, and a freewheeling thinker'], for one, was unconvinced by the
notion of death as something that arrived by accident in evolution. It was,
after all, universal. "My nose for when I don't understand something tells
me there's something here I don't understand," he said. " I don't think they
understand it either."

The audience was not lacking in millionaires, but there was no great surge
of donations to the Methusaleh Mouse Prize after Mr. de Grey's talk.
According to his online record of donations, $1,849 was received during or
after Pop!Tech, which ran from Oct. 16 to 18.

Mr. de Grey has no illusions about the challenge he faces. He wants to
establish an institute to direct research, he said, adding that he probably
needs $500 million to achieve the goal of using mouse research to kick-start
a global research explosion on human aging. That includes the prize fund.

Just before a dinner the night after his talk, one of the participants in
the conference approached him and asked, "Can we talk about funding?"

"Yeah," Mr. de Grey said, "how much money do you have?" >

By "Mr." de Grey, the NYT means, of course, Dr. de Grey.

The journalist comments with surprising candor:

`...the underlying science and technology are real, Mr. de Grey argued....

`Yet without true expertise in some very sophisticated biology, it was hard
to know how far away from the mainstream he was.'

Well, yes. What a shame the NYT didn't commission a report from someone with
expertise in some very sophisticated biology.

Damien Broderick