How do we get more people to study gerontology? Nobody wants to die, but everyone's okay with it for some reason...

How do we get more people to study gerontology? Nobody wants to die, but everyone's okay with it for some reason. Gerontology needs to be as big cancer research.

Nobody needs a bunch of old senile farts to take care of. Just live the life you have.

t. 900 year old illuminati member

i've noticed a Paradox with aging research:


People under 30 don't care, and don't want to help or donate money cause they just assume 'ehh in 20 years, by the time it really effects me, it will just magically be fixed by the progression of science.'


People over 60 don't care cause they mostly assume maybe it could be done, maybe not, but even if they worked on it they probably wont live to see it, so what's the point of putting themselves out for it.


Meanwhile most of the general public thinks the idea of playing with aging is crazy, 'we've always aged so why do you want to go fuck with it?'

Then, comes the whole, where do you put all the people? how do you feed them? how are they paying their electric bill at age 200? etc...


That leaves a pretty narrow box of people to tap into:

1. the anti aging community, people who just don't want to die cause they are naturally curious, life long learners who want to be around to see and learn everything. The problem is this pool of people are usually middle class, at best.


2. I've suggested this with other groups, and it's starting to happen a little. But, going out and recruiting wealthy people who's Looks - Faces - Beauty are their jobs. Famous actors, and models. This is being done a little, there are some older household names in the background of the anti aging community, but no one really big. I'd try and bring in a Cher, a Tom Cruise, a Salma Hayek, etc.... People who publicly have said they hate getting old, their job is their face, who have access to connections most people couldnt dream of, and are tied to people with billions of dollars.


3. Lastly, i don't know if this has been done at all. But, i would have the top anti-aging guys go in and seriously pitch the top 3 cosmetics companies in the world on a potential product in 15 to 20 years that could actually reverse aging, as opposed to pretending to. They already have lab set ups around the world, and could come up with funds.

>People under 30 don't care

I've noticed that too.I'm getting worried, I wish more people were as afraid of dying as I am. You'd think the fall of religion would help people be more afraid of death but people still don't care for some reason.

You seem like you're pretty into this though. What kinds of groups are you a part of?

i'm nobody, but i'm floating around in the background of most of the anti aging community.


Also i wanted to add, i'm not a scientist or anything. But this is how i would approach the problem from my laymen's view of it. I've pitched this idea to people before, but since i am nobody it never gets any traction:


1. starting right now, start building a medical research AI. Upload every medical text, medical journal, medical article ever written into the thing. Then, Rig that up so from now on it is going to get real time updates of every new medical text, journal, article, etc... everything. Gradually be upgrading it, and Aim for that to reach Human Level intelligence by 2030. As soon as it's up and running have it start working on the basic issues of solving how to at least pause human aging.


2. While that is going on have a team, with the AI, working on Crispr, how to play around with the genes responsible for aging in people.

3. Have a team, with the AI, working on nanotechnology medicine for how to eventually be able to use nanobots to cure/fix whatever health problems might crop up from pausing aging in a person.


I think that AI working on it 24/7/365 might be able to solve it by 2030. If not we would keep trying to increase its intelligence so that worst case it can figure it out by 2040.


Then, while all of that is going on Sens, Calico , etc... keep doing what they are doing anyways.


Between all of that i strongly believe it will be solved by around 2035'ish.


That's how i'd do it if i was a multi billionaire

And then there are people like me who don't believe that you can stop the aging process.

Investing into trying to stop it are wasted resources.

To stop aging is not comparable to curing an illness. And scientists aren't magicians.
Here is the magic trick that doctors do: They ask questions to search for symptoms and clues regarding the causes. They then test a bit around on you one way or another to flesh out their search, and the rest is just them going by their gut feeling and applying what they've learned from some books and their seniors.
But something like aging that's always been there, where would you even begin to search for the causes? How would you know you've achieved to stop the aging in a subject?

Also, the reason most people don't bother with the issue of aging is the circumstances they are born into. Look.
The world situation is this:
There are around 8 billion people on Earth right now.
20 years ago, that number was at 4 billion.
The number of resources are so limited, and most important of all the people so unwilling to share, that even back in the 18th century when there were like 1 billion people max, imperialism was a trend.

The governments and the companies in today's society have clear goals. The dominant capitalistic nations seek to strengthen their economy and population growth to grow their power. Non-capitalistic nations are forced to do the same in order to not lose power.
Companies are forced to compete with each other to earn profit. If they don't rigorously cut costs, they are gone from the market.
In this whole process of seeking profits and stealing resources from the others, there is no place for grand ideals like halting the aging process, creating an ideal planet to live on or expanding human reach into the galaxy.
In 20 years from now, the population will be at roughly 10 billion. If humans were reasonable, they would have laws in place like China's 1-child policy. But they are greedy and seek short-term profit.

There are studies, but it's very difficult and they often name it conveniently in a different way.
For example when they concentrate on cellular mechanisms that are related, like cancer.

Learning about cell behavior does progress our knowledge of why we break.

Society would collapse if people stopped dying. I also think your statement that nobody wants to die is wrong: most people don't want to die right now, but the typical 90-year-old has come to terms with mortality and is willing to die.

>have the top anti-aging guys go in and seriously pitch the top 3 cosmetics companies in the world on a potential product in 15 to 20 years that could actually reverse aging, as opposed to pretending to
Why would they want to do that: they rely on people ageing to make their money.

you are an idiot. anti aging does mean you will be senile forever. it's the opposite.

that only means research should be devoted to ensuring an able body and able mind for longer as opposed to merely living longer

There are many things that people can do to prolong their life significantly and also increase their quality of life. However people are lazy motivationlets. The average pleb's frontal cortex isn't sufficiently developed to make lifestyle changes if it reduces their hedonism. Even if they came up with a cure for aging through a mix of stem cell therapy, anti-cancer drugs, nanobots, tissue-engineering, gene therapy, etc. you would probably only be able to afford it for many years if you took very good care of yourself. Else its like drag racing with your sports car and having to buy new wheels every couple months: it would bankrupt you.

What will increase your lifespan and make you age gracefully? Getting a DNA test to know your weaknesses. Getting blood tests etc. to know if something is already out-of-whack and fixing it before its a chronic issue. Eating plenty of cruciferous vegetables, nuts, fish, some (but not excessive) red meat, herbs, spices, drinking tea, dark chocolate, complex carbs, no sugar, varied healthy fats, berries. Walking daily. Not sitting too much. Ensuring you get 8h+ of high quality sleep every day. Having a consistent sleeping time. Washing your hands during flu season and keeping your immune system strong. Not smoking or other unhealthy shit. Taking care of your dental hygiene. Maintaining around 10-15% body fat for men and 15-22% for women. Having rich social connections. Avoiding all chronic stress. Doing resistance training few times a week with excellent form. Doing some high intensity cardio. Going through periods of caloric restriction, protein restriction, and fasting. Getting tested for nutrient deficiencies and rectifying them. Getting a year check-up with the doctor. Living in a house with no mold or other pollutants. Avoiding congested areas and living away from main roads. Learning to listen to your body and when something is wrong. Living within your means.

>but the typical 90-year-old has come to terms with mortality and is willing to die.
You're quite naive.
Any 90yo would kill babies to become young again.
Their problem isn't to live or die, but to get even fucking older or die.
The more they get old the less the alternative is so appealing.

>Fear of death.
You will never experience not being alive. There is no downside to dying. Only alive people are afraid of death.

People will say they care about research. In reality they care more about what's on TV. Priorities follow.

t. former researcher.

Most non-psychopatic 90+ people wouldn't kill babies (this is supposed to be a scientific board right?).

The main problem as I see it is making sure old people can still be a part of the world. Hearing, sight, taste and most other sensations are generally very bad at the age of 90. Being blind, deaf and essentially locked up in their own thoughts make for a lousy life almost guaranteeing mental problems. Let's first fix that.

"To die would be an awfully big adventure" ~ Peter Pan

Literally everything that ever lived has died, billions upon billions of people have already died before you stop being a fucking pussy, read the dhammapada

>People under 30 don't care

I think it's just young people have a lot of shit on their mind, and still haven't grasped their mortality. Their parents are usually alive, they're trying to build a home, working all the time.

I didn't start school until I was a lot older, and my whole motivation was getting into anti-aging. I'm 29 now and gonna be graduating with a BS in Biochem. But, I only got on this path because I was already thinking about dying all the time, and my dad died when I was 22.

If you want more people to care, we have change public perception of disease, aging and death, as well as provide a general understanding of biological research efforts so that they can actually become invested in any efforts. Otherwise you just sound like a knobhead

1. Have you checked out Bioinformatics? There are databases being built that have lots of genomic data; if AI becomes more sophisticated, it's going to be an important future medical tool.

2. the problem is "genes responsible for aging" aren't quite like that. Bodies change over time, gene expression changes over time, but I think it's more like you have bad RNA and proteins accumulating where you don't want them.

Like, if you have a gene controlling growth, the DNA gets made into RNA, and the RNA gets made into a protein that signals growth. But if the RNA intermediate is being fucked around with, it might not make its protein. Or alternatively, you might want to STOP growing, but interactions halt what inhibitory mechanisms are in place, and you get a tumor or something.

I think we're gonna need a lot more than CRISPR. Nanobots are an interesting thought.

to clarify about RNA and proteins, what I mean to illustrate is that since you have so much of this stuff floating around, we're basically looking at the most complicated problem.

hmmm

>complicated problem

biology

Yes, and I predict you'd need to have lots of understanding of pathways, kinetics, thermodynamics, organic chemistry ...

I mean, obviously you're not stupid enough to think biology = memorize 159 species of birds

>the earth is overpopulated you have to fix this by not having children, fucking millenials
>you fucking millenials arent having children you have to open up the borders to unlimited immigration to make up for it
>we're all getting too old and theres nobody to make it easier study gerontology you stupid millenials

I wish it were legal to hunt you for sport.

no! Haha.

Biology is a wide field.

I study cytokines x) this stuff is my jaam.

i think it will mainly come down to Crispr and Nanotechnology.


But, i'm really be counting on a big breakthrough from the AI I described. Imagine an AI with a genius human level intelligence that has read everything ever written medical related. That just sits there constantly working on the problem. And, if it doesn't come up with the solution we keep trying to double its intelligence until it sees the solution. Brute forcing indefinite life extension.

Seriously, if I had Elon Musk money, I'd be throwing it this. Also a means to counter/subvert entropy and a sustainable power source. And/or being able to digitize the human brain/consciousness or at least make brain-in-a-vat a viable option.

It's not just compiling the data we have, though. We also need to do more experimentation, in order to know what is knowable. You need researchers. Unless that AI is also getting messy with assays and receiving real data that it can actually interpret, it doesn't even matter if it's the smartest thing on the planet.

ITT: fools who lack a basic understanding of the world, both scientific or otherwise

Can I interest you in the teachings of Jesus Christ?

Would God not be happy that his creations are so attached to the world that he gave them that they want even more time to improve it and better humanity?

>a means to counter/subvert entropy
how about just getting to the root of the problem and figuring out a way around the second law of thermodynamics?

I have the same motivation as you, but my major is Molecular Biology. Is Biochem better for gerontology? I'm still in my second year and doing general courses so it's a little hard to tell.

Every person I've seen that was interested in anti-aging research also had a bunch of weird psychological hang-ups.

THEY LIVE.

You mean I can't just watch Michio Kaku talk about futurism and watch it happen? You mean people actually have to build the aqueduct? Shit man.

I'm no expert, but my thought was that I should know the chemical basis for biological phenomena, and my program requires a year of physics and 2 years of chem.

Now, though, I think it doesn't really matter. What's important is that you develop an appreciation of topics and further your learning yourself, into grad school and beyond. Through independent study I hope to shore up more understanding of biophysics and even biomedical engineering.

I think if you're of the same mindset, you'll be golden. Whether either of us gets any results, though, haha, who can say

Yeah, I mean I've talked to a few PhDs and they all tell me it's about the research I do. I was a chem major for a bit but saw that all the programs I wanted to sign up for required a bunch of biology that wasn't part of the program so I swapped to a bio major. You're right though, and we sound pretty similar. The way I see it, a life wasted studying something I want for myself in vain is better than a life wasted not even trying. We'll see how things go.

Not him, but your specific bio subfield doesn't really matter, unless we're talking ecology or something. If anything, molecular biology is better in some ways since you get more knowledge on the biology, and that's where the impactful research happens, you won't be able to do both molecular biology AND biophysics research at the same time anyway. Study as much stem cells and genetics as you can, dabble in ageing topics, and keep up with bioinformatics if you can because it's extremely useful. Your post-graduate study will be all that matters when you get down to it, undergrad isn't that important.

What's the best way to get into bioinformatics, and why should I? I always hear everyone saying I should learn a programming language for biology, but I never really got how they were related. Are there any good books about this?

>What's the best way to get into bioinformatics
Through your degree I guess? In my experience most life science degrees offer courses in bioinformatics, even if optional.

>I always hear everyone saying I should learn a programming language for biology, but I never really got how they were related.
I think one of the most commonly used programming language in bioinformatics is R, as well as Python. R is mostly used in statistical analysis. Simply put, biological experiments sometimes require gigantic amounts of processing to yield statistically significant results. Statistical analysis allows a researcher to understand for example if his experiment is successful, if a drug that worked X amount of times in Y samples is significantly successful for example.

But that's just the simplest examples. In animal biology bioinformatics algorithms can help compare genomes and deduce evolutionary origin.

This comparison between genomes can also be applied to single genes. Databases of animals and humans allow us to determine the function of a human protein just by comparing its sequence and homology to the animal counterpart. Statistical tools also allow us to use known protein AA sequences and their structure to predict the conformation of a newly discovered sequenced protein whose 3-D structure we don't know. And so on.

It's worth going into and keeping as a back-up, it accelerates research considerably.

Interesting, I'll keep an eye out for bioinformatics courses when I get into the upper division and I'll look into programming too. Thanks.