The Long Now Foundation’s Seminars for long term thinking are always wonderful fodder for deep thought — this one is particularly good…

 

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Michael West — “The Prospects of Human Life Extension”

 

This talk was given at Conference Center in Fort Mason Center in San Francisco, California on Friday November 12, 02004.

 

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN.

 

“Our germline cells (eggs and sperm) are already immortal. What if the rest of the cells of our body could acquire the same ability? Tissue by tissue, one degenerative disease after another, it could gradually happen in the course of one or two human generations. When it does happen, what we mean by “generation” changes completely…

 

Will it really happen? If so, how soon?

 

Michael West has been in the thick of cures for human aging since his work on telomerase and the founding of Geron in the 1990s. Now, as chair and CEO of Advanced Cell Technology, he is a leader in the use of embryonic stem cells and cloning for the regeneration of aging tissue and organs. He is author of The Immortal Cell: One Scientist’s Quest to Solve the Mystery of Human Aging.”

 

— by Stewart Brand

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