Beyond Human

How Cutting-Edge Science is Extending our Lives

Eve Herold 2016 St. Martin's Beaverton 174.2 HER

• p10 Obesity gene therapy Dr. Ron Kahn Joslin Diabetes Center Boston, "fat insulin receptor gene", blocked reception in mice, eat ad libitum, don't get fat, live 18% longer than controls.

• p55 ESRD End Stage Renal Disease

• p65 UCSF Kidney Project Shuvo Roy

• p67 artificial chemistry, hemofilter for sugar and salt and (blood clots) CT == Converging technologies?
• p100 TATRC Karl Friedl (no references, sigh)
  • p103 every good idea needs a "zealot" ... "The magic number seems to be ten - ten years while everyone shoots in down, and then something happens, the idea takes off,and then suddenly everybody is all over it. Without a zealot to weather all the criticism, the idea will be killed."
• p159 Overpopulation if robot bodies? Assumes robots on earth competing for resources with biohumans.
  • Assume robot plus infrastructure consumes a 1.5 kilowatts, 16h/d 6000h/y, or 9000 kWh/y. At 1000 kWh/y/m² from solar farms, that is 9 m² per robot, 300 km × 300 km of solar panels on Earth for a population of 10 billion robots. Note that robot minds can "move from place to place" at fiber optic speed, and timeshare robot bodies, and suspend offline when nothing interesting is happening.
  • Total solar output output 3.84e26 watts is 2.5e23 minds, assuming 300K, no time sharing, no interstellar migration.

• p172 Rapamycin analog everolimus improves elderly immune response

• p190 Socioemotional selectivity theory older people regulate emotions better, derive more satisfaction socially, solve conflicts

• p194 Michael Ramscar older people search more memories, hence slower

• p200 Some may prefer "finite care" after a long life, especially afterlife believers.

Not a very useful book. The author is a "Science Writer" (== journalist), a collector of factoids and quotes without scientific/functional understanding. A lot of he says / she says, with lists of hyperbolistic benefits and hyperbolistic pessimism.

For example, chapter on brain enhancement seems ignorant of brain physiology.

• p127 "promotes neurogenesis, or the birth of new brain cells and the sprouting of new connections"

  • not true, see http://www.pnas.org/content/103/33/12564.full.pdf

There might be a few useful pointers to real science in this book, but I don't have time to sift through it.