[extropy-chat] PopSci profiles Aubrey de Grey

[Reason]

---> Damien Broderick

> < Transhumanists are science (and science-fiction) enthusiasts
> entranced by
> the prospect that futuristic technology will allow us to modify our
> bodies-wings, anyone? infrared vision?-and also to live a really, really
> long time (if not in our own bodies, then in robotic ones governed by our
> own downloaded brains). Most any gerontologist of repute would dive under
> the desk if a transhumanist came calling, but de Grey enjoys passing
> between the worlds of the professional scientist and the amateur crank. >
>
> Ah. Cranks again. Insightful!

Yes, but cranks with links from PopSci to our more notable websites,
appearing underneath a fairly concise explanation of what we're about.
Dismissive or not, that's good. This is a good excuse to write scathing
letters to the editor that may just get printed. And turn out cutting return
volley articles for publication at Betterhumans - something that doesn't
happen often enough.

Just for reference, from Alexa:

Betterhumans traffic ranking: 89,935
PopSci traffic ranking: 24,252
ScienceDaily traffic ranking: 9,625

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http://www.popsci.com/popsci/medicine/article/0,20967,930738,00.html

While most of us science-literate folks are watching the biotech revolution
with tentative optimism, hoping for innovations like medicines that have no
side effects because they're tuned to a patient's genes, or livers and
kidneys grown to order for people with organ failure, some intrepid souls
are taking much larger leaps. Based on the fledgling promise of stem cells
and brain-machine interfaces, they wonder: Why tolerate chronic pain, or
suffer irrevocable injury in accidents? Why become forgetful, get sick, or
grow old? Why, indeed, experience any of the weaknesses and vulnerabilities
that so relentlessly characterize the human condition?

These technology-over-biology advocates call themselves transhumanists. Some
are focused on redesigning the human body, adding built-in telephones,
multiple joints or even wings. Others are more interested in downloading
their minds so that they can spend eternity in a robotic body. Most
scientists would dismiss transhumanists out of hand, advising them to ease
off on their fantastical reading. Not Aubrey de Grey, a theorist at the
University of Cambridge, who has developed a biology-based plan whereby, he
believes, it should be possible for all of us to live forever-or at least
for 5,000 years. De Grey walks a line between legitimate scientific thinker
and eccentric showman, and he welcomes dialogue with the transhumanist
community. Following are some transhumanist Web sites that are worth
checking out.

Better Humans: www.betterhumans.com
The goal: Provide information, analysis and opinion on the influence of
advancing science and technology. Great clearinghouse of articles from the
mainstream and alternative press and from medical journals.

Extropy Institute: www.extropy.org
The goal: Improve the human condition by finding ways to eradicate
"stupidity, malice, conflict, aging, and death."

Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence:www.singinst.org
The goal: "Enhance cognition"-that is, make humans smarter-to help solve
present-day challenges, including the prevention and treatment of Alzheimer'
s disease, AIDS and multiple sclerosis.

Foresight Institute: www.foresight.org
The goal: Promote nanotechnology, the ability to build microscopic machines
with atomic precision. Medically based nanomachines would have multiple
applications, from scrubbing arteries free of plaque to tracking down and
killing cancer cells.

The Immortality Institute: imminst.org
The goal: "Conquer the blight of involuntary death."

World Transhumanist Association: www.transhumanism.org
The goal: Support the development of and access to new technologies that
promote human enhancement, enabling us to be "better than well."

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Reason
Founder, Longevity Meme