Life Extension [pdf]

Since I'm not seeing too much commentary... I'll bite:<p>"TLDR" version on 'Idea 01': any cell can be regressed to a less developed version and can be used as a general purpose "stem cell"<p>"Did Read" version: One item on this list which looks particular promising is the idea of "induced pluripotent cells"<p>literally: gone are the days of embryonic stem cells, and the social injustice associated with them.<p>It is in my experience when talking with individuals on this topic in particular that they really have a hard time disconnecting "stem cells" from "killing babies"<p>We literally now have the technology to regress these endo exo and meso ( differentiated cells ) into their previous undifferentiated states.<p>This is HUGE! Previously once a cell had "differentiated" to one of the above mentioned states, It could only further develop along that differentiation. Thus it was excluded from migrating from a endo to exo ... or meso to endo etc.

Some context from earlier this year:<p><a href="http://www.fightaging.org/archives/2011/02/25-scientific-ideas-of-life-extension.php" rel="nofollow">http://www.fightaging.org/archives/2011/02/25-scientific-ide...</a><p>"The Science for Life Extension Foundation is a Russian organization consisting of advocates and aging researchers. They are similar to the SENS Foundation in that they undertake a mix of fundraising, directing research, organizing events, advocacy for longevity science, and publishing on potential methodologies to extend the healthy human life span."<p>And another of the rather nice materials from the Science for Life Extension Foundation here:<p><a href="http://www.fightaging.org/archives/2011/07/biomarkers-of-aging-and-age-related-conditions.php" rel="nofollow">http://www.fightaging.org/archives/2011/07/biomarkers-of-agi...</a><p>If you read Russian there's a whole livejournal full of these things from one of the people involved:<p><a href="http://aging-genes.livejournal.com/" rel="nofollow">http://aging-genes.livejournal.com/</a>

This thread not getting much attention because most HN readers are young and therefore don't think about their own impending mortality.

I'm against life extension. I think science has the wrong end of the stick.<p>Whilst death looks like a scary thing and the primary motivation is to avoid the scary bit, people need to keep dying or the population increase caused by them not dying is going to make the standard of living for everyone very low. It's pretty selfish really.<p>It's better to had a prosperous and happy existence than live 5x as long and suffer through it.