Aubrey De Grey Quotes

Powerful Aubrey De Grey for Daily Growth

About Aubrey De Grey

Aubrey de Grey (born June 9, 1963) is a British-American computer scientist, gerontologist, and futurist, most recognized for his strong advocacy of the extension of the human healthy lifespan through science and technology. He is the Chief Science Officer of the SENS Research Foundation, an organization focused on combating aging through regenerative medicine. Born in London, de Grey grew up with a love for both computers and science fiction. His interest in gerontology began during his undergraduate studies at Cambridge University where he majored in computer science. In 1985, he earned a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Edinburgh at just 24 years old. De Grey's career took an unexpected turn when he read an academic paper on aging and decided to dedicate his life to understanding and defeating it. He proposed the idea of "Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence" (SENS), a collection of seven different rejuvenation therapies, each designed to eliminate or reverse one of the seven types of cellular and molecular damage that accumulates with age. De Grey's major works include "Ending Aging: The Rejuvenation Breakthroughs That Could Reverse Human Aging in Our Lifetimes" (2007) and "Aubrey de Grey Interviews Martine Rothblatt on Science, Law and Transhumanism" (2014). His TED Talks have been viewed millions of times, inspiring countless people worldwide. De Grey's unconventional ideas and passionate advocacy have made him a controversial figure in the scientific community, but his work continues to push the boundaries of what is possible in the fight against aging.

Interpretations of Popular Quotes

"Aging is a progressive failure of maintenance, not a progressive wear and tear."

This quote suggests that aging is not a natural process of gradual deterioration due to overuse or exhaustion (as "wear and tear" implies), but rather it results from the body's inability to maintain its functions effectively over time (a "progressive failure of maintenance"). In essence, Aubrey De Grey posits that aging is more about the body's inability to repair itself optimally than simply wearing out with use.

"Young people should be inspired to think that aging is solvable, and they can be part of it."

This quote by Aubrey de Grey emphasizes the idea that aging, a problem often perceived as inevitable or beyond human control, is actually solvable. He encourages younger generations to believe in this possibility and actively participate in finding solutions. It suggests a hopeful and proactive approach to the challenges posed by aging, inspiring youth to envision themselves as agents of change who can contribute to extending healthy lifespans.

"If you do the math, there's actually a decent chance that we'll solve aging before we go extinct."

Aubrey de Grey's quote suggests that given the mathematical possibilities and advancements in medical science, especially regarding anti-aging research, it is plausible that humanity may find a solution to the problem of aging before facing potential extinction due to other factors like natural disasters, wars, or disease. This optimistic perspective underscores the importance of continued investment in biomedical research and the pursuit of technological innovations to extend human lifespan.

"The first person to live to 1,000 years will be a boring person."

This quote by Aubrey de Grey suggests that reaching an incredibly long lifespan, such as 1,000 years, would imply that the individual has had ample time to master various aspects of life and perhaps achieve their goals. As a result, the person might become less curious or adventurous since they have already experienced so much, leading to a potentially 'boring' existence due to a lack of new experiences to seek out or challenges to overcome. Essentially, de Grey posits that such an extended lifespan could lead to diminished opportunities for personal growth and discovery, making life less exciting over time.

"Aging is not a disease, it's just a bunch of diseases."

Aubrey De Grey suggests that aging is not a singular entity but rather a collection of various health issues or diseases that accumulate over time, contributing to the general process of aging. In essence, he's pointing out that many aspects we commonly associate with aging - such as wrinkles, memory loss, and decreased mobility - are actually individual conditions or dysfunctions, which, when combined, result in the overall progression of age-related decline.

If changing our world is playing God, it is just one more way in which God made us in His image.

- Aubrey de Grey

More, Image, Which, Our World

There is no difference between saving lives and extending lives, because in both cases we are giving people the chance of more life.

- Aubrey de Grey

Chance, More, Lives, Cases

Public enthusiasm for new advances is a key ingredient in influencing policy-makers to stimulate follow-up work with suitable funding, and it can be achieved far faster now that interested non-specialists can explore new research autonomously and can also be appealed to directly by scientists.

- Aubrey de Grey

Research, Faster, Appealed, Directly

I don't often meet people who want to suffer cardiovascular disease or whatever, and we get those things as a result of the lifelong accumulation of various types of molecular and cellular damage.

- Aubrey de Grey

Disease, Damage, Types, Molecular

The aim is to postpone frailty, postpone degenerative disease, debilitation and so on and thereby shorten the period at the end of life, which is passed in a decrepit or disabled state, while extending life as a whole.

- Aubrey de Grey

Disease, Which, Period, Frailty

I don't work on longevity, I work on keeping people healthy.

- Aubrey de Grey

Work, Healthy, Keeping, Longevity

We've spent the last few millennia aware that senescence is horrible but knowing nevertheless that it's inevitable. We've had to find some mechanism to put it out of our minds so we can get on with our miserably short lives.

- Aubrey de Grey

Some, Had, Nevertheless, Millennia

If you look at winners of the Nobel Prize in biology, you'll find a fair smattering of people who don't know how to work a pipette.

- Aubrey de Grey

Work, Biology, Winners, Nobel Prize

The scientific method actually correctly uses the most direct evidence as the most reliable, because that's the way you are least likely to get led astray into dead ends and to misunderstand your data.

- Aubrey de Grey

Data, Evidence, Scientific, Astray

What I actually wanted to do with my life is make a difference to the world. That led me into science very quickly.

- Aubrey de Grey

My Life, Very, Quickly, Make A Difference

There's nothing wrong with making the best of one's declining years, but what does annoy me is the fatalism. Now that we're seriously in range of finding therapies that actually work against ageing, this apathy, of course, becomes an enormous part of the problem.

- Aubrey de Grey

Annoy, Against, Part, Declining

Ever since we invented fire and the wheel, we've been demonstrating both our ability and our inherent desire to fix things that we don't like about ourselves and our environment.

- Aubrey de Grey

Desire, Like, Been, Invented

In the eye, there is a type of junk that accumulates in the back of the retina that eventually causes us to go blind. It's called age-related macular degeneration.

- Aubrey de Grey

Blind, Go, Back, Junk

I'm the chief science officer of a foundation that works on the application of regenerative medicine to the problem of aging.

- Aubrey de Grey

Problem, Works, Application, Aging

There's no such thing as ageing gracefully. I don't meet people who want to get Alzheimer's disease, or who want to get cancer or arthritis or any of the other things that afflict the elderly. Ageing is bad for you, and we better just actually accept that.

- Aubrey de Grey

Elderly, Bad, Other, Gracefully

Some things tend not to work so well for science - things that rely on substantial written contributions by key experts are a case in point - but even there I tend to keep an open mind, because it may just be a case of finding the right formula.

- Aubrey de Grey

Open Mind, Some, Point, Substantial

My approach is to start from the straightforward principle that our body is a machine. A very complicated machine, but none the less a machine, and it can be subjected to maintenance and repair in the same way as a simple machine, like a car.

- Aubrey de Grey

Straightforward, Very, Maintenance

As far as I'm concerned, ageing is humanity's worst problem, by some serious distance.

- Aubrey de Grey

Problem, Some, Ageing, As Far As

Basically, the body does have a vast amount of inbuilt anti-ageing machinery; it's just not 100% comprehensive, so it allows a small number of different types of molecular and cellular damage to happen and accumulate.

- Aubrey de Grey

Small, Happen, Damage, Molecular

Ageing is, simply and clearly, the accumulation of damage in the body. That's all that ageing is.

- Aubrey de Grey

Clearly, Ageing, Damage, Accumulate

Wikipedia was a big help for science, especially science communication, and it shows no sign of diminishing in importance.

- Aubrey de Grey

Help, Big, Diminishing, Wikipedia

The whole point of cryopreserving only one's head is based on the idea that one can simply grow in the laboratory an entire new body, without a head, and stick it onto the cryopreserved head.

- Aubrey de Grey

Grow, New, Based, Laboratory

The biggest handicap in research is an ability to think outside the box. The handicap is being encumbered by all the conventional wisdom in a given field.

- Aubrey de Grey

Think, Given, Handicap, Conventional

What I'm after is not living to 1,000. I'm after letting people avoid death for as long as they want to.

- Aubrey de Grey

Death, Living, Want, Avoid

Most scientists will get serious media exposure about twice in their entire career. And they'll get that because they've actually done an experiment that was interesting.

- Aubrey de Grey

Interesting, Career, Will, Experiment

The right to choose to live or to die is the most fundamental right there is; conversely, the duty to give others that opportunity to the best of our ability is the most fundamental duty there is.

- Aubrey de Grey

Die, Give, Fundamental, Ability

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