Lifespan Extension Writing Group

Following from a workshop that took place July 2022 at SFI, a small group of participants from that “Causes and Limits of Lifespan Extension” meeting will reconvene at SFI this fall to work further on relevant ideas and questions that emerged from those earlier discussions. Two main projects will be the focus of this group’s efforts. They hope to produce op-ed pieces, scientific journal entries, and/or to develop new tools and resources aimed at understanding aging, generally, (across biology), and potential consequences that might come about from the intervention on aging, and the extension of the lifespan of a human being. 

“Trajectories of Aging”: A huge array of biological phenomena underpins 'aging', a complex process usually measured via the simple metric of an increasing mortality rate. Recent developments from immunology to gerontology mean that the time is ripe to investigate whether we can go beyond this basic set of definitions. Is there a principled path to introducing more biological detail into the description of aging? For example, could we develop theory to predict which biological systems will fail, and in what order across species? 

“The Challenge of ‘Workspan’ with Longer Lifetime”: A major theme in geroscience is maintaining healthspan in the quest to extend lifespan. Living longer and well both may be promoted by working more years and, at larger societal and economic scales, require that people work longer. What are personal implications (volition vs necessity; ability vs frailty)? What are the local community implications (family structure; implications for wealth; creation of job opportunities for next generation)? What are societal implications (economics; social security; health care systems; place of youthful (or frail), but old people in society)? What should we do about potentially dramatic increases in lifespan that, in turn, would affect workspan?