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“Bill Gates made a convincing argument for why improving human health is money well spent, and won’t lead to overpopulation, in his 2018 video “Does Saving More Lives Lead to Overpopulation?”56 The short answer is: No.
If we were to stop all deaths—every single one around the globe—right now, we would add about 150,000 people to our planet each day. That would be 55 million people each year. That might sound like a lot, but it would be less than a single percentage point. At that rate, we would add a billion people to our ranks every eighteen years, which is still considerably slower than the rate at which the last few billion people have come along and easily countered by the global decline in family sizes.
It’s still an increase, but it’s not the sort of exponential growth many people fret about when they first encounter the idea of slowing aging.
Recall, these calculations are what we’d face if we ended all deaths right away. And although I’m very optimistic about the prospects for prolonged vitality, I’m not that optimistic. I don’t know any reputable scientist who is.”
― Lifespan: Why We Age―and Why We Don't Have To
If we were to stop all deaths—every single one around the globe—right now, we would add about 150,000 people to our planet each day. That would be 55 million people each year. That might sound like a lot, but it would be less than a single percentage point. At that rate, we would add a billion people to our ranks every eighteen years, which is still considerably slower than the rate at which the last few billion people have come along and easily countered by the global decline in family sizes.
It’s still an increase, but it’s not the sort of exponential growth many people fret about when they first encounter the idea of slowing aging.
Recall, these calculations are what we’d face if we ended all deaths right away. And although I’m very optimistic about the prospects for prolonged vitality, I’m not that optimistic. I don’t know any reputable scientist who is.”
― Lifespan: Why We Age―and Why We Don't Have To
“One of the latest theories of aging—and my favorite—is presented by my friend and colleague David Sinclair in Lifespan: Why We Age—and Why We Don’t Have To. The information theory of aging proposes that we age and become more susceptible to diseases because our cells lose information. DNA stores information digitally, but the cells have an analog format that can modulate the function of genes in the sequence of the DNA.”
― Age Later: Secrets of the Healthiest, Sharpest Centenarians
― Age Later: Secrets of the Healthiest, Sharpest Centenarians
“Over fifty years, Goldman estimated, the potential economic benefits of delayed aging would add up to more than $7 trillion in the United States alone. And that’s a conservative estimate, based on modest improvements in the percentages of older people living without a disease or disability. Whatever the dollar figure, though, the benefits “would accrue rapidly,” Goldman’s team wrote, “and would extend to all future generations,”
― Lifespan: Why We Age―and Why We Don't Have To
― Lifespan: Why We Age―and Why We Don't Have To
“This wasn’t a beat-down. This… this was training.”
― All the Skills 2
― All the Skills 2
“Your generation, just like all the ones that came before, didn’t do anything about the destruction that is being done to this planet,” Alex told me that evening. “And now you want to help people live longer? So they can do even more damage to the world?”
I went to bed that night troubled. Not by our firstborn’s denouncement of me; of that, I admit, I was a little proud. We’ll never destroy the global patriarchy if our children don’t first practice on their fathers.”
― Lifespan: Why We Age―and Why We Don't Have To
I went to bed that night troubled. Not by our firstborn’s denouncement of me; of that, I admit, I was a little proud. We’ll never destroy the global patriarchy if our children don’t first practice on their fathers.”
― Lifespan: Why We Age―and Why We Don't Have To
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Longevity Reading Group
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Discuss interesting books in the biological sciences with a focus on aging and longevity.
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