Steven Leckart drinks beers for lunch with Aubrey de Grey. They discuss de Grey's controversial anti-aging proposals and the future de Grey envisions:
What’s going to happen is the curmudgeons the card-carrying gerontologists who think it’s very dangerous to be over-optimistic will eventually recognize the data available to us from mice is so solid we can go out publicly and say, “It’s only a matter of time.” That’s going to take a panel of interventions in mice that’s so comprehensive we actually add two whole years to the lifespan of mice that are already in middle age before we start.
That may be overcautious. We may be able to get gerontologists on board with a more modest result than that. However, at that point, game over. My job will be done. I can retire. Because that will be the point when Oprah will be all over it and the following day it will become impossible to get elected unless you have a manifesto commitment to have a war on aging.
I just wish he hadn't called it that.