Or rather, it could be called the “politics” of living longer – this biomedical gerantologist from Cambridge in England has taken on the controversial, emotionally charged and quite political topic of immortality and, along with his characteristics beard, has become quite a lightning rod for those who espouse that we really can achieve a state of living indefinitely – and within a resonably short period of time. 

His ideas are intriguing if nothing more.  Unfortunately there is much more coverage of his surface ideas, his sales message and his beard than there is of the science behind his treatment of the topic. 

In theory, he has tackled the rather finite types of “damage” that build in our bodies to eventually negate the natural state of existance – at which point we reach mortality.  Carrying on research on these 7 core areas of damage has become his target for hitting the magical point where we reach the first major point of innovation on aging, after which he is quite correct in saying that natural “incremental” innovation should keep anyone who can take advantage of the major innovation ahead of the curve…the only question I would pose is whether there may be more than 1 major innovation required before we can live forever which would throw his predictions off by a matter of a few hundred to a few thousands years…but hey, who’s counting anyway?

Here’s a great video that introduces his thinking and area of research…