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Advancing Conversations: Aubrey De Grey - Advocate For An Indefinite Human Lifespan
Advancing Conversations is a line of interview books documenting conversations with artists, authors, philosophers, economists, scientists, and activists whose works are aimed at the future and at progress. The biogerontologist Aubrey de Grey, as the world's pre-eminent longevity advocate, is nothing if not future oriented. De Grey is the founder of the SENS Research Foundation, an organization developing medical interventions to repair the damage the body does to itself over time. Stated more directly, Aubrey de Grey and his organization aim to defeat aging. In 2005 a panel of scientists and doctors from MIT, Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, Microsoft, and the Venter Institute participated in a contest to judge whether de Grey's "Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence" were worthy of debate and verification or whether these ideas were wrong on their face. The panel found that de Grey's proposals for intervening in the aging process, while speculative, often "ran parallel to existing research" and were not "demonstrably wrong."
80 pages, Paperback
Published June 24, 2016
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
August 22, 2018
Not-quite-3 stars.
Very poor presentation, a well-meaning but anxious/ sycophantic interviewer (I kept imagining Baldrick from Blackadder) and a cantankerous interviewee made this an interesting but simultaneously disappointing read.
It takes the form of a too-accurately transcribed live interview, presumably in keeping with the publisher’s ethos of ‘keeping it real’ as much as possible. But in reality, without all the visual and audible cues that allow for intelligible breaks in spoken word, it’s incredibly jarring. There really wouldn’t have been anything wrong with tidying things up a bit.
The interviewer tried his best, bless him, but Aubrey de Grey comes across as a bit of a tough nut here (though he does soften a bit by the end). I would’ve LOVED to have read his thoughts on his organisation’s seven point plan to eradicate ageing in more detail, but he actively refused to explain it only to spend a lot of time calling his detractors ‘embarrassingly illogical’ every two minutes instead. I sympathise with the fact that he does face a lot of criticism and/or dismissal for his ambitions, but he could be using the time more constructively. I shouldn’t have to wade through his treacular personality to get to the information.
I’d recommend that anyone interested in his work watch him on YouTube, the documentaries on his work or, as I’ll be doing next, trying his book. This one has some good moments, but it’s surely not the best ad for SENS.
Very poor presentation, a well-meaning but anxious/ sycophantic interviewer (I kept imagining Baldrick from Blackadder) and a cantankerous interviewee made this an interesting but simultaneously disappointing read.
It takes the form of a too-accurately transcribed live interview, presumably in keeping with the publisher’s ethos of ‘keeping it real’ as much as possible. But in reality, without all the visual and audible cues that allow for intelligible breaks in spoken word, it’s incredibly jarring. There really wouldn’t have been anything wrong with tidying things up a bit.
The interviewer tried his best, bless him, but Aubrey de Grey comes across as a bit of a tough nut here (though he does soften a bit by the end). I would’ve LOVED to have read his thoughts on his organisation’s seven point plan to eradicate ageing in more detail, but he actively refused to explain it only to spend a lot of time calling his detractors ‘embarrassingly illogical’ every two minutes instead. I sympathise with the fact that he does face a lot of criticism and/or dismissal for his ambitions, but he could be using the time more constructively. I shouldn’t have to wade through his treacular personality to get to the information.
I’d recommend that anyone interested in his work watch him on YouTube, the documentaries on his work or, as I’ll be doing next, trying his book. This one has some good moments, but it’s surely not the best ad for SENS.
February 15, 2019
Meh
It was mostly superficial, I needed more details, more insight than what this book gave me. I think I dont like interviews in the book format.
It was mostly superficial, I needed more details, more insight than what this book gave me. I think I dont like interviews in the book format.
September 5, 2019
Seems like a missed opportunity. Was disappointed by lack of thought Aubrey had given to key questions / unwillingness to really engage with the interviewer
February 8, 2017
This is a small Q&A book of about 80 pages.
Some questions are elaborate enough though some are less well-though-out.
This kind of book should be at least 2 times longer to allow Abrey de Grey to better make his case.
Aubrey de Grey rocks!
I like his engineering approach which he applies not only to eradicating ageing but also to his own public image which he aims to use as a means to deliver his ideas to a wider audience.
Some questions are elaborate enough though some are less well-though-out.
This kind of book should be at least 2 times longer to allow Abrey de Grey to better make his case.
Aubrey de Grey rocks!
I like his engineering approach which he applies not only to eradicating ageing but also to his own public image which he aims to use as a means to deliver his ideas to a wider audience.
March 18, 2017
This is a good introduction to Aubry de Grey, who (as the title suggests) is a leading mind in the advocating for an indefinite human lifespan. This essay provides a high-level overview of the progress and challenges of de Grey and his colleagues as they work to cure the ultimate illness: aging.
February 7, 2017
I thought the subject matter was interesting, but very light on details about what the theoretical treatments could be. I did however find the interviewer/author was a bit too fanboy-ish and rarely seemed to want to push an avenue of inquiry that was difficult.
Overall enjoyable, and I'd read more from the same press.
Overall enjoyable, and I'd read more from the same press.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews