EA Meetup With Talks: Jack Harley on Aging

(Deutsche Zusammenfassung weiter unten)

// Aging: The science and ethics of solving the world's #1 killer //

At this month's meet-up we are excited to feature a talk by Jack Harley on the tangible, yet relatively neglected topic of aging. He will tell us about the research in the field, explore its ethical implications and make a case for anti-aging work as an EA cause area. This talk might be especially valuable for people in the biomedical and biotechnology fields and for anyone interested in how increased longevity might impact the future from a social, political and philosophical perspective.
After the talk and Q&A (in English), there will be an opportunity to carry on the discussion and to get to know other attendees in ice-breaker sessions (in English or German).

~~~ Summary ~~~
Aging kills more than twice as many people as all the other things that kill people combined, yet anti-aging research remains shockingly neglected. The scientific feasibility of anti-aging has been confirmed by many world-leading experts such as Professor David Sinclair from Harvard Medical School. However, while billions of dollars of governmental funding is directed towards treating the diseases of aging, only a tiny fraction is spent on attempting to create treatments for the root causes of these diseases. In this discussion, we will introduce the scientific feasibility of anti-aging technologies, and the ethical impacts of these developments. Will aging lead to immortal dictators? Distributional justice issues? Overpopulation? These questions will be addressed in this eye-opening presentation.

~~~ About the speaker ~~~
Jack Harley is a biomedical scientist, biotech analyst, and co-founder of Longevity Wiki. After graduating from neuroscience and bioethics at the University of Oxford, Jack has served as Vice President of the Oxford Society of Ageing and Longevity, and worked in several longevity biotechnology companies based in Australia and the US. Jack is a long-time Effective Altruist, and his involvement began in 2014 after meeting Peter Singer. Recently, Jack has outlined the rationale for anti-aging in a popular article published on the rationality forum LessWrong in 2020 (https://bit.ly/3v5wL2H). Jack’s vision is to encourage greater investment and scientific talent into longevity biotechnology to extend the healthy lifespan of billions of people alive today.

~~~ How to join ~~~
The meetup will take place at 19:00 via this Zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82165151503?pwd=Zy9RaDFhK0xvQmc5VG84VjVQK0VRUT09

~~~ What else should I know ~~~
People who are unfamiliar with effective altruism are encouraged to watch “What are the most important moral problems of our time?” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WyprXhvGVYk) by one of the founders of Effective Altruism, Will MacAskill, or the longer talk “Introduction to EA” (https://youtu.be/48VAQtGmfWY) by Ajeya Cotra as introductions to the topic.

We look forward to seeing you there!

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Deutsch:

Beim Meet-up diesen Monat freuen wir uns Jack Harley für einen Vortrag über das familiäre, aber relativ vernachlässigte Thema des Alterns zu empfangen. Er wird uns von der Forschung auf diesem Gebiet berichten, die ethischen Implikationen erforschen und ein Plädoyer für Anti-Aging-Arbeit als EA-Cause-Area halten. Dieser Vortrag könnte besonders wertvoll sein für Leute aus dem biomedizinischen und biotechnologischen Bereich und für jeden, der sich dafür interessiert, wie eine erhöhte Langlebigkeit die Zukunft aus einer sozialen, politischen und philosophischen Perspektive beeinflussen könnte.

Nach dem Vortrag und der Fragerunde (in englischer Sprache), wird es die Möglichkeit geben in Ice-Breaker-Sessions die Diskussion fortzusetzen und andere Teilnehmer kennenzulernen (in englischer oder deutscher Sprache).

Wir freuen uns auf euch!