EIW Festival of Links - Round 1

Lately it seems that there's something interesting to read (or listen to) everywhere I turn! In light of that state of affairs, I've compiled a list of a few things that have caught my attention recently. Some of the items on this page represent cases in which I note an intriguing "crossover" between, say, civil rights blogging (which would include most, if not all, of the disability stuff I read) and longevity/transhumanist blogging. Other items represent cases in which someone has said something that resonates strongly with me in terms of the messages I try to put forth here. And the rest of the items just represent Things I Thought Were Worth A Look.

On The Mostly-Longevity Front...

1. Reason at Fight Aging! calls attention to a challenge to the "anti-aging marketplace": If you're so sure of the efficacy of your product or process...Then Why Not Compete For the Mprize?:

If you have something that works to extend healthy longevity, you should be demonstrating as such by competing for the Mprize, or pointing to past studies that have been entered into the Mprize. If you can't do that, you're not really serious.

I don't think I can add much to that, except to note that I agree with it...the Methuselah Mouse Prize is a great way of putting one's money where one's mouth is with regard to longevity medicine.

2. Kristina Chew of Autism Vox notes the uncanny similarities between the anti-aging marketplace and the proliferating autism 'cure' quackery schemes:

Regarding the “business opportunity” aspect of those proffering alternative “anti-aging treatments,” the New York Times notes that “authorities have indicted 20 people, including four doctors, in three states as part of an investigation into what federal and state prosecutors describe as a booming and illegal trade: Internet trafficking in human growth hormone and anabolic steroids.”

I still sometimes find myself asking why people persist in flocking to supposed "remedies" with no real support behind them. I'm guessing that the answer to that question is probably similar to the one I got from a "psychic reader" I encountered when I was in college: I asked her how (if at all) she proved her abilities to her would-be customers prior to getting them to give her money, and her response was, "I don't need to prove anything -- people just keep coming to me anyway."

3. Dr. Leonid Gavrilov has a blog. In a recent post on the subject of the recently-held Edmonton Aging Symposium, he apparently agrees with me that motivations for healthy life extension go well beyond the purely financial:

Also I feel that even if life-extension is not socially profitable, it still deserves to be pursued, because I believe that human life has its own value, beyond the money dimension.

(I'd personally substitute "sentient life" for "human life" in the above quote, but that's something of a picky point.)

4. Videos and other media from the Edmonton Aging Symposium are available online. The Symposium was held on March 30-31 2007 and in part addressed the following (emphasis mine):

New therapies involving stem cells, gene therapy, and other biomedical breakthroughs, have been and are being developed which when applied to these few types of damage have the potential for alleviating many related age-associated disorders at once by attacking them at their root. For instance, Alzheimer's, Parkinson’s, Diabetes and others often show an accumulation of indigestible material within their particular cell type. Therapies able to remove this junk in one cell type will likely be able to remove the same material in another removing that damage as a factor in the development of associated diseases.

The current need for such technologies is great and increasing as generations that have benefited from the application of science to childhood diseases have survived to suffer from the problems of aging.

The phrase "generations that have benefited from the application of science to childhood diseases have survived to suffer from the problems of aging" is extremely significant, and highlights one of the major reasons why I believe longevity research to be an ethical necessity, not a frivolous "luxury" or egocentric pipe-dream. Curing fatal childhood diseases is, of course, a wonderful thing -- but it's only the first step in what should be a concerted effort to move society toward a more universal valuation of individual lives, regardless of how old those individuals are.

On the Diversity, Disability, and Society Front...

1. Coming on the heels of the recent poll on disability "costs", ABFH of Whose Planet Is It Anyway? recently mailed her taxes, and writes:

Hardworking autistic taxpayers are being unfairly burdened by having our money spent on worthless bigoted garbage, instead of a decent and respectful education for our kids. Our society is being overwhelmed by a costly epidemic of ignorant prejudice, and we need a cure for it NOW.

Though not all autistic people are employed (not all people are employed, for that matter), some of us certainly are, and like ABFH, I'm plenty disturbed by some of the potential uses of my tax dollars. And I'm more than enthused about the idea of a cure for ignorant prejudice, but unfortunately you don't see too many people these days pushing for better critical-thinking education.

2. Amanda at Ballastexistenz offers Stilts, a sort of parable on assumptions about, and bias regarding, a person's skill set, appearance, and functionality. I'm not going to quote it here, because you really have to read the whole thing to get the message out of it.

3. Andrea at Andrea's Buzzing About comments on "Cyborg Cool" Versus "Crip Pity":

Given the rising popularity of wearing one’s hardware as a piece of body ornamentation, maybe our auditory & visual devices – hey, even assorted orthotic devices – can become simply part of the ordinary accoutrement.

I appreciate Andrea's sentiment here greatly -- she's describing the exact sort of society likely to arise upon the widespread destigmatization of difference.

Podcasts I Have Known Of Late...

Podcasts apparently possess a near-magical power -- one that enables them to transform activities like washing the dishes, cleaning the fish tank, or riding the bus into opportunities to be educated and fascinated. Here are two I've started listening to regularly:

1. The Future And You, hosted by science fiction author and futurist commentator Steven Euin Cobb. Don't be put off by the bare-bones website -- this podcast is simply amazing, both in terms of production quality and in terms of content. Every episode comes in at an impressive 2+ hours (give or take a few minutes), and is packed with interviews, philosophical musings, and examinations of the state of things in the world today. I like how the host manages to get such comprehensive commentary from people who all seem to share an interest in pondering what's to come, but whose viewpoints are also extremely diverse. Additionally, this podcast scores extra points with me for demonstrating a consistently supportive attitude toward the idea of radical life extension. Episodes are produced "only" once a month, but they're well worth the wait.

2. SALT - Seminars About Long-term Thinking, produced by the Long Now Foundation. The Long Now Foundation is a project which hopes to "...explore whatever may be helpful for thinking, understanding, and acting responsibly over long periods of time." Humans didn't evolve to think over the very long term, but at this point in history, I'd say that long-term thinking is a skill well worth cultivating. The audio available from the Seminars consists of recordings of various talks, by persons interested in different factors that are likely to be significant for us Earthlings over the Very Long Term. Well worth a listen.