A great essay by Arnold Kling on Aubrey de Grey's bestselling book, "Ending Aging".
http://www.tcsdaily.com/article.aspx?id=091207G
"Four years ago, I reported that de Grey foresees a not-too-distant future in which humans can reverse the effects of aging, raising the possibility of living healthy lives for hundreds of years. He has not backed away from that position, and this book, written by de Grey and his research associate Michael Rae, represents an update from his perspective. In brief, he says that
1. The latest scientific research indicates no flaws in the theory that aging can be eradicated.
2. However, getting the required techniques developed will require institutional changes relative to our current system for conducting medical research.
As an economist, I am most interested--and most qualified to form an opinion about--the second point."
Arnold Kling's impressive bio:
http://www.tcsdaily.com/Authors.aspx?id=171
"Contributing Editor, TCS
Arnold Kling is a TCS Contributing Editor and an adjunct scholar with the Cato Institute.
He holds a Ph.D. in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He was an economist with the Federal Reserve Board and later with Freddie Mac. In 1994, he founded Homefair.com, one of the first commercial sites on the World Wide Web. After Homefair was sold, he wrote "Under the Radar: Starting Your Net Business Without Venture Capital," published by Perseus in 2001. He has also written "Learning Economics," a collection of essays on economic issues. Kling 's personal web site is http://arnoldkling.com. His blog (with Bryan Caplan) is at http://econlog.econlib.org. He teaches high school on a volunteer basis near his home in Silver Spring, Maryland. He is married, with three daughters."
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