Aging kills more than twice as many people as all the other things that kill people combined, yet anti-aging research remains shockingly neglected. The scientific feasibility of anti-aging has been confirmed by many world-leading experts such as Professor David Sinclair from Harvard Medical School. However, while billions of dollars of governmental funding is directed towards treating the diseases of aging, only a tiny fraction is spent on attempting to create treatments for the root causes of these diseases. In this discussion, we will introduce the scientific feasibility of anti-aging technologies, and the ethical impacts of these developments. Will aging lead to immortal dictators? Distributional justice issues? Overpopulation? These questions will be addressed in this eye-opening presentation.

Jack Harley is a biomedical scientist and biotech analyst with a focus on anti-aging biotechnologies. After graduating from neuroscience and bioethics at the University of Oxford, Jack has served as Vice President of the Oxford Society of Ageing and Longevity, and worked in several longevity biotechnology companies based in Australia and the US. Jack is a long time Effective Altruist, and his involvement began in 2014 after meeting Peter Singer. Recently, Jack has outlined the rationale for anti-aging in a popular article published on the rationality forum LessWrong in 2020 (https://bit.ly/3v5wL2H). Jack’s vision is to encourage greater investment and scientific talent into longevity biotechnology to extend the healthy lifespan of billions of people alive today.