[extropy-chat] Andrew Weil on ageing

[The Avantguardian]

--- "Lifespan Pharma Inc." <megao at sasktel.net> wrote:

> VAIL, Ariz. - The best-known practitioner of
> integrative medicine, 
> melding alternative and traditional approaches, has
> gone mainstream.

If "going mainstream" means throwing ones lot in with
the death-lovers, I hope transhumanism NEVER goes
mainstream.

> Dr. 
> Andrew Weil, whose 10th book came out Oct. 18,
> intends to raise the 
> public consciousness about aging, and why it is and
> should be healthy.

If aging was healthy, nobody would ever die from it.

> 
> In his view, advocates of anti-aging medicine, who
> tout regimens ranging 
> from growth hormone to Botox and cosmetic surgery to
> stop the aging 
> process, have become the 21st century equivalent of
> snake-oil purveyors 
> - long on pitch and short on scientific substance.
> It's a charge that's 
> been leveled at Weil for years.

Admittedly there are hucksters out there, but should
this be used as an excuse to stop research into TRULY
stopping the aging process? 

> Weil calls anti-aging advocates "false prophets who
> are putting out a 
> message that aging is reversible or that we can stop
> it."

The Apollo astronauts did not just happen to wake up
one morning on the moon. Somebody had to believe that
it was possible to go to the moon and then try really
hard to get them there. Just because something hasn't
been done before does not mean it can't be done or
shouldn't be done. And all prophets are false until
their prophecies come true.

> "I think those are very wrong ideas," he says during
> a recent interview 
> at his Vail ranch, about 30 miles southeast of
> Tucson. "Aging is a 
> universal natural process, and I think if you set
> yourself up in 
> opposition to it, you're in a very wrong
> relationship with nature."

In a similar vein: Predation is a universal natural
process. If you are being hunted by a tiger and you
don't just lay down and let the tiger eat you, you're
in a very wrong relationship with nature.
 
> 
> "The most damaging perception out there is that the
> worth of human life 
> diminishes with aging, and I've tried to make a case
> that aging brings 
> its own rewards - that there can be an increase in
> the value of life, 
> like fine wine," he says.

Sure you can age like fine wine when you are a Harvard
educated doctor, with 4 best sellers and a 120 acre
ranch. But the average person just turns to vinegar,
neglected in some old folks home. 


The Avantguardian 
is 
Stuart LaForge
alt email: stuart"AT"ucla.edu

"If you fear death, you are not living right but if you don't try to live forever, you are not living well." - a sparrow outside my window.


		
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