Biomedical gerontologist Aubrey de Grey has said that the first person likely to live to 1,000 years-old has probably been born already. de Grey's nonprofit lab, and others, some of which are funded by Silicon Valley billionaires, are boldly focused on how science may find a cure for aging. In the new issue of Smithsonian, Elmo Keep writes about these efforts to \"hack\" mortality and quotes my Institute for the Future colleagues Rachel Maguire and Jake Dunagan, both of whom cast a concerned eye on the obsession with longevity. From Smithsonian: <\/p>\n
One thing we do know is that there are more elderly people alive now than there have ever been in the history of the planet. Even if todays life-extension researchers made meaningful breakthroughs, the therapies wouldnt be available for many years to come. That means were about to face a lot of death, says Rachel Maguire, a research director focusing on health care at the Institute for the Future, in Palo Alto. By 2025 or 2030, there will be more of a culture of dying and lots of different ways of experiencing it. There are early signs of new types of funerals and spiritual formations around this. Maguire foresees new end-of-life plans, including assisted dying. When it comes to aging, she points out that biological research is only one piece of a puzzle that must also include economics, politics and cultural change. I dont think we have answers yet for how wed do the other pieces. And the financial piece alone is huge. <\/p>\n
Theres already a huge disparity between the life spans of rich and poor Americans, and critics of the new longevity research worry the gap may only grow wider. A 2016 report from the Brookings Institution found that, for men born in 1920, there was a six-year difference in life expectancy between men at the top 10 percent and bottom 10 percent of the earnings ladder. For men born in 1950, the difference was 14 years. For women, the gap grew from 4.7 to 13 years. In other words, advances in medicine havent helped low-income Americans nearly as much as their wealthier counterparts.... <\/p>\n
Dunagan has little patience for Silicon Valleys longevity research; he says proponents are not sufficiently interested in the details. The rich people are defining the terms of the longevity conversation and have enhanced access to these technologies, he says. Everyone wants to live longer, to some degree, but its also the sense of privilege, of selfishness to it thats I want mine. I always want mine. Well, what if everyone had this? What would be the long-term implications of that? <\/p>\n
Derek Muller of the YouTube channel Veritasium uses a nifty trick to make visible the invisible air currents, temperature gradients, and differences in air pressure around us. The process is called Schlieren photography and with the right equipment and some precision alignment, you can try it at home. As Muller explains: I first saw a [] <\/p>\n
On June 16, 1963, Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman in space. She orbited the Earth 48 times over a period of three days. Inspired by Yuri Gagarin who in 1961 became the first person in space, Tereshkova applied to the Russian space program and was accepted based on her extensive background as [] <\/p>\n
In this nifty YouTube video, Dave Hax talks through the properties of gallium, the metal that liquefies at just 86F and is safe to play with. (Just dont eat it!) Hax has a whole collection of videos about gallium on his YouTube channel. If you want to give it a try yourself, you buy 20 [] <\/p>\n
While the portability of smartphones and tablets is undeniably convenient, the occasional need to support your device while typing or video chatting can get exhausting after awhile. To give you an extra hand with your mobile devices, this trio of foldable stands is availablein the Boing Boing Store.These device props have an adjustable metal back, [] <\/p>\n
With over 80% of the global smartphone market, Android is by far the most widely-used operating system. Thanks to its open-source underpinnings, adoption of Googles mobile OS has skyrocketed. It can be found everywhere from laptops to car navigation systems. As such, enterprising mobile developers would be remiss to not consider targeting the platform. And [] <\/p>\n
Having grown out of its awkward adolescence, JavaScript is no longer a novelty language for animating elements on webpages. It has become the lingua franca of the web, imbued with a variety of other libraries and tools to form complex, interactive sites. To make a real career as a programmer its not enough to just [] <\/p>\n
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Hacking the human lifespan \/ Boing Boing - Boing Boing<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Biomedical gerontologist Aubrey de Grey has said that the first person likely to live to 1,000 years-old has probably been born already. de Grey's nonprofit lab, and others, some of which are funded by Silicon Valley billionaires, are boldly focused on how science may find a cure for aging. In the new issue of Smithsonian, Elmo Keep writes about these efforts to \"hack\" mortality and quotes my Institute for the Future colleagues Rachel Maguire and Jake Dunagan, both of whom cast a concerned eye on the obsession with longevity Continue reading