| LONG FOR THIS WORLD The Strange Science of Immortality Jonathan Weiner New York: HarperCollins, June 2010 |
Rating: 5.0 High |
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| ISBN-13 978-0-06-076536-1 | ||||
| ISBN 0-06-076536-4 | 310pp. | HC | $27.99 | |
The legends come down to us from the dimmest times of our history, in some of the oldest documents we have: The Epic of Gilgamesh, the Upanishads, the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. Details vary, but the essence does not, reflecting a longing that is as deep as it is ambivalent: the desire for immortality. Along with riches, it was a motivation for the age of exploration; Ponce de Leon thought he'd found it in a Florida spring. Closer to our own time, a parade of quacks has peddled various nostrums purported to prolong vigorous life, or to rejuvenate some aspect of it — male virility, most often.
With the advent of scientific medical practices during the Enlightenment, improvements in public health began to raise human life expectancy. It is now double what it was in the Middle Ages, and reaches 85 years in developed nations. Nevertheless, the hunger for immortality is as strong as ever, and its attainment remains a constant theme in science fiction. But something has changed: the decoding of the human genome and related advances in molecular medicine raise the real possibility that science may find a way to give us immortality in fact.
Aubrey de Grey stayed with the Weiners in Pennsylvania briefly. During the visit he ventured this opinion:
"It would be very hard to find anybody to debate me and make a good fight of it without my making a fool of them. Because they are fools. Not in the sense of their intelligence but in terms of what they know. They just haven't done their homework. They're not fools in terms of intellect. But they just haven't had the time or inclination to get the right constellation of knowledge." – Aubrey de Grey, Pages 120-121 |
Later that same day, at a dinner party, de Grey made a strong impression. Weiner's wife borrowed his notebook and wrote, in block letters, "HE IS MORE SURE OF HIMSELF THAN GOD."
This one's for you, Aubrey David Nicholas Jasper de Grey. Keep searching.
Three Jolly Coachmen
"Here's to the man who drinks good ale
And goes to bed quite mellow.
Here's to the man who drinks good ale
And goes to bed quite mellow.
He lives as he ought to live, lives as he ought to live, lives as he ought to live:
A hale and hearty fellow!"
That possibility raises some disturbing questions. Jonathan Weiner investigates them here by giving us a portrait of today's foremost advocate of the quest for immortality — Aubrey de Grey.
Born in London, he learned to drink beer and write computer code at the University of Cambridge, and stayed in town to write code after he graduated, hooking up with Sir Peter Sinclair's company. He pursues the quest to abolish aging as an avocation, but with single-minded persistence, trying passionately to convince anyone who will listen of its inevitable success. He knows the science well and has written papers with some of the top names in the field of gerontology, as the study of the biology of aging is known.
Gerontology had been a somnolent area of medicine until quite recently. The degeneration of aging was seen as inevitable; the smart money, and the smart people, were dedicated to curing something that could be cured, like lupus or cancer. What changed the picture was the discovery that cutting the food consumption of lab animals lengthened their lives. This works in species as different as the microscopic, pond-dwelling tokophyra and white mice.2
As the field began to attract more researchers, other discoveries followed in train. It is now known that a handful of genes influence the rate of aging, the most interesting being one called Sir2. Also, various substances have been found to retard the metabolic processes that lead to degeneration in the body. Resveratrol, from the skins of grapes, is the best known; another is rapamycin, discovered in soil samples from Easter Island (Rapa Nui to its original inhabitants.) There has been progress in identifying the waste products that gradually "gum up the works" as we get older. The body can dispose of some, but gets weaker at doing this as time passes. Some others are never disposed of; these include lipofuscin which builds up in the retinas and causes macular degeneration. One of Aubrey de Grey's seminal ideas was that finding new ways to clean up these waste products would be a big step toward his ultimate goal.
Human metabolism is fearsomely complicated, of course. Tinkering with it is fraught with immense risk. That is why other scientists look at Aubrey de Grey's proposals with a certain skepticism. Yet his audacity is valuable, for it forces medical science to face the looming possibility that he will succeed in his quest, at least partly. If he does,3 if the question of feasibility is finally answered, an even more daunting question comes to the fore: the question of desirability.
That, in fact, is what this book is all about. For journalist Weiner does not doubt that medical science will one day solve the riddle of aging. On that day, humanity must decide whether it wants the gift of extended days. It will not automatically be an unalloyed blessing, after all — even if the extension has a definite limit. What if political leaders reserve it for themselves? Imagine Hitler, Stalin, or Pol Pot lasting for a millennium. What if it becomes another perquisite of great wealth? And even if it's available to all, it will change society in unpredictable ways. How will children fare — will there be any? How will the other species on this planet fare?
Though it describes a number of advances in gerontology research, this book is not a survey of such research. Rather, it is a profile of Aubrey de Grey and an examination of the implications for society if his obsessive quest succeeds. As such, it is a contribution worthy of top marks. But I would not rate it a keeper.
To contact Chris Winter, send email to this address.