Author Archive for: Michael Pietroforte

Thank you also for your reply, Michael. Yes, I don’t disagree that for a theory to abide to the scientific method, it usually needs to be quantifiable, measurable and predicting of repeatable phenomena. I have nothing to say against that. I did a BA in Forestry so I kind of…

Miguel, thank you for your comment. First of all, as someone who has been trained in the philosophy of science, the history of science and quite a few different natural sciences, I can tell you that all reputable scientists make many wrong claims throughout their careers. Thus, I don’t think…

Dear Michael, Speaking of contradictions, as you well put: “Of course, I am only an interested layman and no match at all for a high-class scientist like David Sinclair.” But then you say: “…scientists who support the damage theory of aging oversimplify things…” or “At best, this is a nice…

This seems very reasonable. I think I have heard a recent BBC interview on the nature of Phage Therapy. It seems this area has been neglected, comparativeely…and some modern research is using DNA to guide the applicaiton of phages to cure/immunize a specific individual of a specific problem…However the modern…

I think nowadays most health-related lifestyle recommendations are based on statistics and the possible causal explanations (biochemical pathways) are often without real empirical evidence. This is why recommendations change every few years. Before fats were all bad, now carbs are the main culprit. However, things are changing rapidly now because…

Thanks for your reply. I am trying to wrap up my evening here in Japan, preparing for tomorrow’s classes. But still I want to write a quick reply in case you have further thoughts before my Friday classes.   It seems there is ALOT of smoke about the Telomeres that…

Joe, thanks! You are right, all the studies that found that the telomere length depends on the lifestyle are just based on statistical correlations. However, there are possible causal explanations. For instance, if you have fewer infections, fewer cell devisions are required.

I am a Univ. English learning lecturer in Japan. The textbook I am using has a chapter on Telomeres effects on the body. I have tried to track down just one of the references given indirectly  that starts you can directly effect the length of your Telomeres by changing your…

I don’t think that slower aging will decrease the numbers. Quite contrary! The main problem of a species where some members age too slow is that certain alleles will become too dominant in the species. That is, the genetic diversity decreases, putting the species at the risk of extinction. Imagine…

Michael, You are right that increasing life span in a by product of an improvement in the standard of living in developed economies. Sorry I didn’t make that clear. Together they influence fertility rates for socio economic reasons for which the list is long.  

  It doesn’t necessarily mean a species goes extinct it may just cause an decline in numbers until supply and demand come back into balance. For instance an increase in human live span where culture plays an important role has caused fertility rates to go negative in developed economies as…

I am unsure where you disagree. Life spans in the animal kingdom are driven by what works best for species survival. This is exactly Mitteldorf’s point. If the life span is too long, that is, if animals don’t age fast enough, the species becomes extinct because it depletes the resources…

Mitteldorf appears to have run into a dead end based on your report for the following reasons: A behavior can become hardwired when it proves  to confer a survival advantage. This is obvious in yeast and bees and becomes less obvious and more subtle the higher you go in the…

Thanks! Excellent question! 😉 I can only tell you what Fossel and other supporters of the telomere theory of aging probably would respond. The thing is that young cells are very capable of repairing damage and getting rid of debris. However, when cells get older they more and more lose…

Excellent response, thanks. I’m coming to the view that SENS and telomerase therapy may in fact be highly complementary, with SENS focused on cleaning up the residue of past aging and telomerase therapy focused on preventing further harm from aging. Do you agree with this conceptual framing?

I am currently reading Molecular biology of the cell (recommended), a standard text book for college students. The 6th edition was released at the end of 2014 shortly before Kurzweil interviewed de Grey. This is what the authors had to say about the telomere theory of aging: When telomerase is provided…

Did you receive any responses to this question? I’ve been wondering the same thing, having just finished Fossel’s book and read DeGrey’s first.

Michael, we are talking about computer simulations here. A computer simulation of a black hole can only simulate gravity and nobody will get hurt. The question if we are already in a simulation is interesting and it hunts me since my college exams because Hilary Putnam’s brain in the vat…

I’m trying to work out why that would matter, as to anyone inside the (impossibly accurate) simulation, the Black Hole would indeed have gravity, and indeed have disasterous effects. That’s kind of the point of a simulation. yeah, it’s air gaped from the substrate because that’s what it is running…