[extropy-chat] This life span debate is one for the ages

[Giu1i0 Pri5c0]

It all started with Sherwin Nuland's
engrossing-if-maybe-a-bit-over-the-top cover profile of Aubrey de
Grey, a Cambridge University-based computer nerd and Snuffy Smith
look-alike who claims to be an innovator in the field of
biogerontology.
If you search technologyreview.com, the TR website, you'll find quite
a brouhaha concerning the de Grey profile. Nuland's article was
evenhanded, but for some reason TR editor Jason Pontin wrote an
editorial in the same issue, calling de Grey a ''troll," and worse:
''pathetically circumscribed... he dresses like a shabby graduate
student and affects Rip Van Winkle's beard; he has no children... he
drinks too much beer." De Grey's claque, many of whom subscribe to the
tenets of ''transhumanism" (fire up the browser again:
www.transhumanism.org), pounced on Pontin's remarks. Pontin lamely
explained, ''When I called Mr. de Grey a 'troll' it was of course a
literary device." Of course.
Various crackpots have invaded the TR website; check out the ramblings
of Reason -- his legal name --  who runs the website
www.longevitymeme.com.
Pontin is proud of the article, and he should be. It has been
downloaded from the TR site almost 200,000 times, which approaches the
magazine's total circulation of 315,000. ''I think we've shown how de
Grey has become more of a movement than a man," Pontin says. ''And he
has made himself the leader of this movement without ever performing a
single experiment in a lab."
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/living/articles/2005/02/03/this_life_span_debate_is_one_for_the_ages/
My letter to the Boston Globe editor:
Sir,
referring to the article "This life span debate is one for the ages"
by By Alex Beam, Globe Columnist, February 3, 2005:
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/living/articles/2005/02/03/this_life_span_debate_is_one_for_the_ages/
The author refers to the debate on Technology Review, but forgets
mentioning that the vast majority of readers, not all of them
"transhumanists", express sympathy for Dr. de Grey and indignation for
the unjustified ad-hominem personal attack of Mr. Pontin. I wish to
invite all Globe readers to follow the debate, including the public
apology issued by Mr. Pontin, at:
http://techreview.com/forums/forum.asp?forumid=1002
http://techreview.com/forums/forum.asp?forumid=1001