lil’ snow white

last evenin we had a very interestin n thot provoking guest speaker event organised by The Actuarial Network at Cass (TANC). e turnout was pretty good n participants included students, alumni n other actuaries. there was free food (yeah!) n drinks too!

e guest speaker was Aubrey de Grey, well known for his strong views on longevity. when i first saw him i thot he was the IT person settin up e presentation slides.. he wore long, frizzy hair tt was loosely tied up wif a scrunchy n a long, bushy beard. he din wear a suit n wore track shoes wif black socks! but he’s a doctor! a very unconventional one definitely.

anyway e main points of his presentation were:

1) humans have no genes for aging - so we cannot simply knock out agin genes to live longer
2) metabolism causes damage to e body which eventually leads to pathology/death
3) to interfere wif metabolism or pathology wld be difficult n too complicated
4) so he believes tt there’ll be a therapy tt can target damages n correct them
5) if he succeeds, ppl can live at least 300 yrs more –> dep. on e age at which therapy starts
6) and.. e first batch of infants who start e therapy at tt age can expect to live 1000 yrs!!

and there wont be any need for insurance n actuaries anymore since ppl live practically forever! pensions will also have to be completely relooked upon since pensioners will be takin their pension for 1000 yrs!! it was a very exciting thot actually.. altho we noticed tt e project is still in its infancy (or maybe foetal??) stage. there isnt any concrete therapy they have in mind yet n gods noes if it’ll really work.

apparently someone has alrdy managed to prolong e lifespan of a micro-organism frm its normal 1 day to 7 days! that sounds like freaky eh..?

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