This is the online home of David G. Schwartz, who 
Book Review: Long for this World
Jonathan Weiner. Long for this World: The Strange Science of Immortality. New York: HarperCollins, 2010. 320 pages.
Immortality’s a tricky subject to write about. There are few people who wouldn’t be at least a little interested in the prospect of living forever, but since no one’s been documented doing it, there’s really not much to say about the subject. Extending human life, however, is another story,. Weiner summarizes how the average human lifespan’s been steadily increasing, and asks the question: why can’t this go on indefinitely?
In search of answers, he discusses the work and personalities of several scientists and enthusiasts working in gerontology. The most colorful of them, Aubrey de Grey, quite possibly has a messiah complex about the whole thing, and his personal affectations–wild beard, constant beer-swilling–make you wonder if it’s about the science or just a plea for attention by someone who whose day job isn’t setting the world on fire.
Yet there’s a real story here, one that Weiner tells with language so carefully balanced that it’s no stretch to call it beautiful. He does a wonderful job of conveying extremely technical details about aging at the cellular level in a way that’s completely accessible to the non-specialist, but not at all patronizing. The book is at its best when Weiner is talking to gerontologists or summarizing their research and theories. It’s at its weakest when Weiner combs through history, sharing excerpts of what physicians, philosophers, and scientists have written about immortality. This is the sort of material that would work well in an academic monograph because it demonstrates the incredible breadth of research the author has undertaken, but it doesn’t really have much relevance to what today’s scientists are doing.
In the penultimate chapter, “The Trouble with Immortality,” Weiner also offers–and appears to condone–a laughably weak argument against conducting research into gerontology: if advances in medical sciences allowed everyone to live to be 1,000, we’d have to worry about Hitler, Stalin, and Mao living for a thousand years, making it sound like living longer will inevitably lead to dictatorships. First, I would think this idea’s been historically disproved, since freedom has increased and despotism decreased greatly as life expectancies have gone up. Second, it’s setting a rule for everyone based on the worst case scenario. By this logic, we should abandon all medical science, since some of the people doctors save might become despots. I’d also expect that Matt Ridley (I’m currently reading his RATIONAL OPTIMIST) would have something to say to him about his claim that “we already overcrowd much of the planet,” but I’ll leave that to him.
In short, it’s an interesting subject, wonderfully written, with a few stand-out personalities. LONG FOR THIS WORLD is a good read about a subject that’s close, no doubt, to everyone’s heart.
Posted in book reviewson 07/30/2010 06:18 am by Dave
08/03/2010 at 5:30 pm
I wrote another long comment on this subject…which I again felt I shouldn’t post. But please don’t think I don’t have a lot to say about this subject. I spent most of my 20s thru mid-30s following some really strange longevity techniques (rather advanced stuff that I assembled from a wide range of various experts and formulated into my own system).
I won’t go into it here…but the key to longevity is hard to practice in this modern day world. And maybe the word longevity doesn’t actually apply…since its more a system of slowing the aging process than extending the amount of years available.
The only true method I know of that can slow the aging process is complete celibacy, rhythmic breathing and Kriya (mental) Yoga.
Really. In a nutshell those are the best (and maybe only) ways to slow the body-clock.
A lot can be said for exercise and healthy eating (which I used to be fanatically devoted to). But, they aren’t they total package.
I’m no longer involved in a search for longevity. If I live to be 70 I’ll have achieved my goal. 70 years is plenty long enough of a time for me. Living 70 years without dying in a car wreck or getting shot is a pretty good achievement in itself.
The way I view life now…is this: Dying isn’t the end of the world.
(pun intended).
In fact, I look at life on Earth as like going to a university. Someday we get to graduate and take our knowledge and wisdom somewhere more useful. (But that’s a whole other subject that not everyone believes in and that I won’t talk about here).
I’ve studied the works of longevity experts. There’s been a lot of arrogance in that field.
One story I’ll never forget is about the man who was the founder and publisher of Prevention Magazine and Organic Farming Mag.
His name was Jerome Rodale. Here’s something I copied and pasted about him:
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In a New York Times Magazine interview, this 72-year old longevity guru announced, “I’m going to live to be 100, unless I’m run down by a sugar crazed taxi driver”. A guest on the ‘Dick Cavett Show’ the next day, while Cavett was discussing politics with journalist Pete Hamill, Rodale’s head dropped to his chest. He was dead.
Ironically, Rodale had bragged during his just-completed interview on the show that “I’m in such good health that I fell down a long flight of stairs yesterday and I laughed all the way”, “I’ve decided to live to be a hundred”, as well as “I never felt better in my life!”
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That happened around 1969. It’s a true story.
His son went on to run Prevention magazine (a health food digest). He was an Olympic Bicyclist and also had a certain (IMO) arrogance regarding his ‘longevity beliefs’. He died at age 60 of a heart attack.
Now, I’m not trying to make-fun of these guys…or denying any of their claims. I just see this as something worth remembering. There was also another guy named James Fixx. He was a major health-guru during the mid-1970s. He wrote the best-selling book ‘The Complete Book of Running’ in 1977.
He was (probably) one of the first Post-War ‘health and fitness experts’ (besides Jack La Lane and the 19th century Kellog Brothers). Fixx is the guy mainly credited with starting the heatlh and fitness craze of the mid-seventies. (Jane Fonda would come along in the 1980s).
Fixx advocated running for health benefits and there’s nothing at all wrong with that. But he also developed an arrogance about his belief that running was a source for human longevity. Perhaps it is for other people (studies say it is). But it wasn’t for him. In 1984, he died of a heart attack at age 52.
Once again. I’m not trying to make light of any of this longevity experts or their attempts. I just feel that a sense of humility needs to always be maintained by people who think they’ve figured out how to out-fox Mother Nature.
There was a whole town (in the USA) where a group of Italian immigrants (who all came from the same town in Italy and settled together in an American village). Scientists found out that they statistically lived longer and healthier than other people. (I forget where I read this).
Anyway. The key to their longevity (if memory serves me correctly) was a certain lack of getting stressed out over things. That might be the best key to longevity of all (and something I haven’t personally attained).
Plus. There’s a lot to be said for Italian longevity and their intake of tomatoes, garlic oil and wine.
Well gee. This comment turned out to be longer than I expected and not as even as interesting as my other one, that discussed Las Vegas citizens, etc. Oh well. I probably shouldn’t post this one either. But, I don’t want anyone thinking I don’t have thoughts about this very interesting subject of longevity.
As for me. If I get 11 more years out of life I’ll be very, very happy and satisfied. My best Internet friend (in England) died two months ago at age 60. Cancer got him in the short period of just 3 months. It really blew my mind to see him go so quickly.
So. If I get 11 more years I’ll be completely satisfied.