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 enlarge | Authors: Aubrey De Grey, Michael Rae
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Category: Book
List Price: $26.95
Buy New: $13.14
You Save: $13.81 (51%)
New (35) Used (12) from $10.98
Avg. Customer Rating:  28 reviews
Sales Rank: 67418
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1st
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 400
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.4
Dimensions (in): 9.4 x 6.1 x 1.4
ISBN: 0312367066
Dewey Decimal Number: 612.68
EAN: 9780312367060
ASIN: 0312367066
Publication Date: September 4, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 Living 1000 years. May 12, 2008
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
Ending Aging: The Rejuvenation Breakthroughs That Could Reverse Human Aging in Our Lifetime
This is a fascinating book and a must read for every scientist and engineer. The thesis is reasonable and well reasoned by a very capable author and scientist. Every ancient culture reports a golden age before the flood in which humans lived as long as 1000 years. In my computer architecture course I ask the students to estimate the number of bits the human brain can store, evalutating the neuron as an analog element representing many bits, and also including chemical synapses. The answers range from 10**17 to 10**19 bits. Then assuming that color vision of motion is the most challenging brain function I have them estimate how many teraflops it would take a supercomputer to equal that function. Now, if the brain functions at that level 16 hours a day and rests (sleeps) 8 hours a day how long will it take to fill it. The answer is about 1000 years! But what about the motivation? Naturally, almost everyone wants to live a little longer (in good health, of course), but 1000 years? Remember the Ancient Sybil at Locarno who asked the gods for immortality and got it. Her cry after only 500 years was: "I want to die." Of course, with Dr. Aubrey's theraputic strategy one could simply discontinue the anit-aging therapy and then die gracefully in about 50 years.
Peter C. Patton
Professor of Engineering
Only if you're interested February 27, 2008
11 out of 11 found this review helpful
After reading several, emotionally-charged, negative reviews, I felt I should write something rational to try to help someone who might be interested in reading this book.
If you're truly interested in the reasoning behind de Grey's optimism about human rejuvenation, you should DEFINITELY read this book.
If you're looking for lightweight entertainment, this book is not for you.
Also, let's be real: unless you're a qualified, competent, current, medical scientist, there's no way for you to decide whether de Grey's reasoning is sound.
It's hard to believe that all the reviews found here on Amazon.com were written by such scientists. I'm not even going to try to tell you if I agree with de Grey's science or not since I am not a scientist and truly have no idea if he's correct.
Nevertheless, if you're interested in the topic and have a strong desire to learn how de Grey thinks, this is the book for you. It is lengthy and detailed and covers a lot of ground. I enjoyed reading it. That's why I gave it 5 stars.
Frankly, I doubt that one person in 1000 (if that!) could truly understand and evaluate what de Grey is talking about so, unless you happen to be that person, don't expect to go to work in gerontology after reading this book and don't write a review that makes blanket statements about the claims in this book.
If you like to read and have an interest in these topics, you'll find it worthwhile. If you enjoy reading Ray Kurzweil's books, you'll probably enjoy this book.
Also, if you just want to encourage people like de Grey and Kurzweil to keep exploring, buy this book.
If you believe de Grey, Kurzweil and other 'futurists' are evil hucksters, then you should provide some evidence of it and don't buy their books. Ad hominem attacks against the authors of books don't help people decide if they want to read the book.
If you're so knowledgeable about science that you can shred the premise of this book, then you should be writing your own book on the topic and working in the field.
If you're not qualified to make that analysis or if you're so biased against futurists that you can't think straight, then there's not much point in writing a nasty review. It only reveals your own failings.
 Endless Ageing: to what end? February 12, 2008
2 out of 34 found this review helpful
If worn-out human parts can be replaced and a person can live to be 300 to 400 years, won't only the very rich be able to afford this technology? What economic chaos there would be if everybody could get a life extension. We're running out of Social Security monies now, jobs are being exported daily. How would a 300-year old person earn enough to eat. What about the overpopulation issue? The mexicans are reproducing at 5 times the rate of everyone else in America. Add to this the undead created by Endless Ageing technology and you get a lot of people that need jobs in order to economically sustain life. Would a 400 year old want to learn spanish. Would the oldsters want to move to India to answer phones. Lets get serious. The authors need a brain replacement NOW.
What "Paradigm Shift"? February 12, 2008
0 out of 25 found this review helpful
Aubrey de Grey and Michael Rae are, in this well-documented book, fixated on "repair" and bio-mechanical remediation as a source for longevity and health. But they are ignoring the overwhelming data that tie health and a long, disease-free life to diet. Blindly accepting the industries' (e.g. meat, dairy) hand in molding protein and calcium RDA has led to five decades of decline in western health, as evidenced in the dramatic rise of heart diseases, cancers and diabetes. What is not needed is engineering to remediate symptoms, but rather an attack on the cause of illness and aging. A vegetarian or vegan diet is no longer scorned as "unhealthy" as it was 25 years ago by most physicians, dieticians and nutritionists. Because the evidence is clear and documented. The scales are slowly but surely falling from the eyes of the public, just as in the 70s there was a return to natural health practices such as breast feeding (which in my parents' time was scorned as "not necessary" and "inconvenient for the mother". The real "paradigm shift" would be more critical thinking of so-called "modern medicine" or "miracle drugs" and less of the deGrey/Rae biological "band-aid" approach.
Immortality? Not in this space-time. February 11, 2008
0 out of 11 found this review helpful
We humans might indeed extend life indefinitely, but we will only have more years to contemplate the end, however distant. Besides, a future nearby gamma ray burster is scheduled to sterilize our solar system. At least we can take comfort in the knowledge that our descendants will seed the universe with the dust of perfectly healthy mitochondria.
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