Daily Archives: March 25, 2006

The Tithonius Error

Reason at Fight Aging! has a follow-up to Stephen’s post from earlier this week:

Advocacy is certainly a spectrum – it’s quite possible to be supporting efforts to obtain large-scale funding for the Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence (SENS) with one hand, while trying to dispel widespread and elementary myths with the other. Still, one would hope that some progress can be made in banishing the Tithonus error to the past. If half the population no longer knee-jerks in opposition to healthy life extension based on a false conception of “older for longer” – well, that can’t be a bad thing for the prospects of raising a broad platform of support for research, can it?

Nope, sounds like a good thing to me. I think what will really slow the knee-jerking — and in fact might start them jerking in the other direction — is when people begin to realize that a few (at first a very few) of their friends and loved ones are enjoying longer and longer lives. The operative word there being enjoying.

A lot of folks cling to life even when it becomes painful and undignified. Few will hang on to the delusion that some law of nature or moral obligation requires us to be happy about our eventual demise when they see an alternative of more productive, healthy, happy years in their lives. At some point, the largely unspoken truth will be acknowledged more or less universally.

New Stem Cell Source?

This looks promising

Researchers in Germany have identified a potential source of reprogrammable cells in adults that could be used for regenerative therapy. The cells would be taken directly from the testis and cultured. No cloning or destruction of embryos would be necessary.

The discovery opens up the possibility, at least for men, of having an endless source of fresh stem cells tailored to one’s genetic makeup, which could be turned into any kind of body tissue and used for treatment. This has been the promise of stem cells taken from cloned embryos, but the use of cloned embryos has run into considerable ethical and technical problems…

The big question is whether human males have the same cells. And, as the article explains, even if this stem-cell-source pans out in humans, it’s only good for half of the species. So far, no corresponding source of cells has been found in women.

It's a New Phil, Week 12

I love New York, but I become more ambivalent about business travel with every passing year. The most recent episode of The Sopranos* features a comatose Tony Soprano lying in a hospital ICU. On the brink of death, he hallucinates a different life for himself. He’s not a gangster; he sells precision optics. In this dream world, his state of limbo between life and death is represented as a business trip.

All I can say is that whoever wrote that episode knows what a business trip is like. There is something surreal about breezing into town with a laptop and a suitcase, checking into an interchangeable room in an interchangeable hotel, and then setting out to engage in a bunch largely ritualistic, interchangeable activities. Tony’s problem is compounded by a shattering loss of identity — he accidentally exchanges his briefcase and wallet with another guy, whose identity he eventually assumes.

Simply put, we are not ourselves when we travel. We assume a distinct persona, often in spite of ourselves.

To bring these philosophical ramblings into the “new Phil” context: the only real surprise to me when I weighed in on Friday after flying back to Denver on Thursday was that I had only gained a single pound. This brings me back up to 264, for a total weight loss of 33 pounds. The on-the-road Phil has an approach to life, priorities, and a disposition which are often at odds with my own. Add to that the lack of sleep, lack of control over my environment, and the seemingly endless parade of goodies that midtown Manhattan has to offer, and I must say that OTR Phil did all right for himself.

* I acknowledge that I’ve been a little heavy on the TV-blogging the past couple of days. For all you TV lovers, you’re welcome. For everybody else, don’t worry. It’s just a phase.

It’s a New Phil, Week 12

I love New York, but I become more ambivalent about business travel with every passing year. The most recent episode of The Sopranos* features a comatose Tony Soprano lying in a hospital ICU. On the brink of death, he hallucinates a different life for himself. He’s not a gangster; he sells precision optics. In this dream world, his state of limbo between life and death is represented as a business trip.

All I can say is that whoever wrote that episode knows what a business trip is like. There is something surreal about breezing into town with a laptop and a suitcase, checking into an interchangeable room in an interchangeable hotel, and then setting out to engage in a bunch largely ritualistic, interchangeable activities. Tony’s problem is compounded by a shattering loss of identity — he accidentally exchanges his briefcase and wallet with another guy, whose identity he eventually assumes.

Simply put, we are not ourselves when we travel. We assume a distinct persona, often in spite of ourselves.

To bring these philosophical ramblings into the “new Phil” context: the only real surprise to me when I weighed in on Friday after flying back to Denver on Thursday was that I had only gained a single pound. This brings me back up to 264, for a total weight loss of 33 pounds. The on-the-road Phil has an approach to life, priorities, and a disposition which are often at odds with my own. Add to that the lack of sleep, lack of control over my environment, and the seemingly endless parade of goodies that midtown Manhattan has to offer, and I must say that OTR Phil did all right for himself.

* I acknowledge that I’ve been a little heavy on the TV-blogging the past couple of days. For all you TV lovers, you’re welcome. For everybody else, don’t worry. It’s just a phase.