London Futurists

Arguments against funding longevity science - and why they are all wrong

Wed, Apr 8 · 6:00 PM BST

Ye Olde Cock Taverne (Holborn), 22 Fleet Street, EC4Y 1AA, London, GB

On Wednesday 8th of April, public rallies and other events are taking place around the world in support of greater funding for research into longer healthy lifespans.

The Fund Longevity website makes the case as follows:

Aging Is a Problem: Aging kills around 110,000 people every day. It is the primary risk factor behind nearly all major non-infectious diseases, including cancer, heart disease, and dementia. Beyond statistics, aging causes decades of frailty, pain, and loss of independence. It is the greatest source of human suffering that is being accepted as "normal".

This Is Personal: Everyone you love will age, suffer, and die because of it. So will you. If we had the ability to prevent this, choosing not to would be deeply unethical. If we can stop aging, we should.

Stopping Aging Is Possible: Aging is not a mystery or a force of nature. It is a biological process — and biological processes can be studied, modified, and treated. Over the past decades, scientists have identified many of the core mechanisms that drive aging at the cellular and molecular level. While our understanding is incomplete, it is already sufficient to begin developing real therapies.

What Do We Mean by "Stopping Aging"? We mean treating aging as a medical condition. The goal is to restore and maintain youthful biological function — roughly equivalent to being in your twenties — for as long as you choose. This would prevent or reverse age-related diseases instead of treating them one by one.

Is This Really Realistic? Yes. Thousands of scientists have publicly stated that aging is a solvable problem in the Dublin Longevity Declaration. Research already shows that aging can be slowed, paused, or reversed in laboratory organisms. Some animals exhibit negligible aging or extreme longevity. Nature has already demonstrated that aging is avoidable — humans simply haven't applied these solutions to ourselves yet.

Is It Difficult? Extremely. Reversing aging in humans will likely be more difficult than landing on the Moon. It will require entirely new biotechnologies and breakthroughs that don't exist yet. We will need to remove senescent cells, repair or replace damaged tissues, and solve many other problems we don't fully understand. This is one of the most difficult challenges humanity has ever faced, but just because it is difficult does not mean it is impossible. Many scientists agree that there are no fundamental laws of physics that prohibits stopping aging. Nature has done it in several animals already, like the hydra.

What's Missing? Scale. Today, fewer than a thousand people worldwide are seriously working on solving aging — researchers, biotech founders, and advocates combined. That number needs to grow by at least 1000×. There is no major government agency dedicated to ending aging. Funding is fragmented. Regulation is outdated. Public urgency is nearly nonexistent. This will not change on its own.

Why We Act: Aging is the largest cause of death and suffering on Earth. Solving it requires a society-wide effort — scientific, political, and cultural. That's why we organize. That's why we demonstrate. That's why we demand action. Join us — and help make aging optional for humans and animals.*

== London Futurists gathering on 8th April ==

The arguments for greater funding for longevity science are strong - but at least a dozen arguments are often raised in opposition to such funding.

In our gathering in Ye Olde Cock Tavern in Fleet Street, we'll take the opportunity to review these arguments - debating their merits, taking them apart brick by brick, and exploring what really lies behind these arguments.

Anyone who wishes to make a short presentation on this topic during this gathering should contact the organisers in advance.

== Schedule ==

5:30pm: The room is available, for early get-togethers
6pm-6:45pm: Food is served; informal conversations
6:45pm-8:30pm: A number of interactive conversations, interspersed with opportunities to visit the bar
8:30pm: Informal networking

== RSVP please ==

Registrations are capped at 35 people.

First-time attendees are welcome.

There's no charge to register or attend, but the pub will expect everyone to order at least one drink, and a reasonable number of attendees to order some food to eat.

Please order your food on your arrival, so that all plates can be set aside by 6:45pm to allow everyone to concentrate on the main discussion!

== More about the venue ==

Ye Olde Cock Tavern, 22 Fleet Street, Holborn, London, EC4Y 1AA

See https://www.greeneking.co.uk/pubs/greater-london/ye-olde-cock-tavern

We'll be meeting in the room at the top of the stairs, though drinks should be ordered from the bar on the ground floor.

** Note that this is an in-person meeting, and there will be no remote access, sorry **

The Future Self: Transhumanism, Technology, and Flourishing

Sat, Apr 18 · 4:00 PM BST

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Online

Online

Make no mistake: the transhumanist impetus is here to stay. Humans dream their science long before doing it. Our species has a pretty formidable track record for putting things we can imagine, however unlikely they may seem at first, into action. Transhumanist narratives of hope and apprehension have become part of the collective imagination through which we envision, rehearse, and enact or prevent possible futures of the human condition. It comprises an untidy, eclectic mix of science, fact and fiction, philosophical speculation and religious yearning, cultural tropes and ideological posturing. Lest we confuse ethics with feasibility, an ethical assessment of transhumanist aspirations must always be reflective of this self-propelling force of technological imaginaries.

That's a paragraph from the Preface from the recently published volume "Technologies of the Future Self: An Ethics for Transhumanist Flourishing". The Preface continues:

A few years ago, when we first conceived this book project, we were struck by a mismatch between the exuberant technological idiom on the one hand, and the rather anodyne (mostly utilitarian and/or libertarian) moral idiom in which transhumanists talk about their collective imaginaries on the other.

Commonly, transhumanists cast their agenda as a quest for “overcoming human limits”, “transcending biological limitations”, and “unlocking human potential”. Even though they clearly advocate the use of advanced science and technology for the betterment of humankind, we find their goals and aspirations seldom if ever expressed in the language of “human flourishing”. In the eyes of transhumanists and their critics alike, central tenets of transhumanism are seen as clashing with ethical conceptions of the “good life” that are substantively defined in terms of "human nature", which transhumanists seek to transform if not overcome.

But surely, we sensed, this cannot be the final word on the matter. The present volume thus seeks to explore these philosophical tensions and, at the same time, suggest avenues that point towards a rapprochement.

This London Futurists webinar features an opening presentation from one of the co-editors of the volume, Georg Theiner, as well as commentary from an author of one of the chapters included in the book, Tracy Trothen.

Topics likely to be discussed include:

• Strengths and weaknesses of transhumanist narratives
• Conceptions of “human nature” and “flourishing”
• The roles of relationship, interdependence, and social justice
• Responses to the challenges of unprecedented technological disruption
• Should we welcome, or resist, a potential "Humanity 2.0"?
• Foundations for ethical decisions: Utilitarianism vs. virtues

The webinar will also include time for audience questions, feedback, and extended conversation.

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This event will be hosted on Zoom. To register, click here: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_uOG2IiOdRlqQOZYmIOYj4A

There will be no charge to attend the webinar.

The webinar will start broadcasting at 4pm UK time on Sat 18th April. To find this time in other timezones, you can use this conversion page.

Please log into Zoom up to 10 minutes ahead of the start time of the event, so you won't miss the start of the live broadcast.

As the discussion proceeds, attendees will be welcome to raise questions and vote to prioritise questions raised by others.

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About the speakers:

Georg Theiner (PhD, Indiana University) is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Villanova University, where he also teaches for the Cognitive Science Program and at the Law School. He works mostly in philosophy of mind and cognitive science, with a focus on technologically and socially distributed cognition, and has an abiding research and teaching interest in examining the impact of AI on the future of humanity. He has published numerous articles and book chapters in these areas, and is the author of a monograph, Res Cogitans Extensa: A Philosophical Defense of the Extended Mind Thesis (Peter Lang, 2011). He served as editor-in-chief of the journal Social Epistemology (Taylor & Francis) from 2019–2023, where he also guest-edited a recent special issue on “The Mind-Technology Problem in the Age of GenAI.”

Tracy J. Trothen is an interdisciplinary professor of ethics at Queen’s University, jointly appointed to the School of Religion and the School of Rehabilitation Therapy. She is the author or editor of numerous articles, chapters, and books including her co-authored books, Understanding Religion and Artificial Intelligence: Meaning-Making in the Digital Age (with Randall Reed), and the award-winning Religion and the Technological Future: An Introduction to Biohacking, AI, and Transhumanism (with Calvin Mercer). Tracy co-chairs the American Academy of Religion's (AAR) Artificial Intelligence Unit and is a Fellow of the International Society for Science and Religion (ISSR).

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For more information about the book Technologies of the Future Self: An Ethics for Transhumanist Flourishing see https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-99902-4, where members and friends of London Futurists can use the discount code PALAUT

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To register on Zoom for this event, click here.