35 replies to this topic

[VictorBjoerk]

I thought this could appear to be a topic of great interest.

Let's say you are just a average person e.g not a professor or known person (like Aubrey De Grey or any other famous people on this board) suddenly realizing the horror of your own as well as other people's aging.
You want to spend your free time to as much as you can contribute to research to eventually stop aging and death.
What should that average person do?

Some obvious suggestions from me

Donate to the methusaleh mouse prize
Practise calorie restriction
Support folding@home
Get an account at the forums of imminst.org

List more ways to contribute to the science of aging!! It would be great if we could have a list of 100 things to do in less than a week after this posting.

Are there any volunteer jobs that you can get in the field of aging etc....?

[Shepard]

List from Accelerating Future: http://www.accelerat...ael/blog/?p=712
MFoundation: http://www.mprize.or...what_you_can_do and http://mfoundation.o...ename=volunteer

There are plenty of things to do.

Go back to school.
Make a lot of money to donate.
Donate what you have. (Until it hurts, as MR has said elsewhere.)
Use whatever talents you have to spread the meme.
Bring up stuff in normal conversation. (e-mail signature works well, too)
Even volunteering your time to help ImmInst from a navigation/direction perspective.

[zoolander]

1. Motivate the aged population to get active
2. Instill your youthful vigor into the mentally old
3. Put poster's on the doors of lifts that say "Using the stairs keeps you young and healthy", "Using the stairs decreases the incidence obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease....do I need to go any further". Research has shown that if you place these signs on lifts and the lift is near (next to) some stairs then people generally take the stairs

I know we are an online forum here but there is so much we can do in our local community to help

Edited by zoolander, 03 April 2008 - 12:21 AM.

[forever freedom]

Well depends if you're focusing on the short or the long term. Long term plans are the best are will help the cause the most, like getting rich and donating a lot of money to researches, getting a degree in a field related in some way to anti aging and becoming a researcher, among others.


Short term, there is some stuff you can do like volunteering to help websites like mprize and others and participating in forums and spreading the cause. Short term, there's nothing very significative, but it's still good (better than nothing eh) if the person doesn't want to get very involved. A person can also blend some plans (my case), like you can go to fields that are really not related to anti aging and make some good money and later donate whatever quantity you wish, or get some sciences degree and work on other fields to sustain yourself or fields that you really like and give some eventual help to anti aging by doing some short researches and stuff like that.

[niner]

While contributing to anti-aging research is one of the better things you could do, the best thing you could do would be to leverage your efforts by getting other people to contribute more than you ever could. You could lobby for anti-aging research support from the government (of any country, state, or locality), corporations, foundations, or individuals.

[lunarsolarpower]

You can educate and inspire young people to help us work towards our goals.

[Cyberbrain]

sens.org has a great list there!

Aside from that, if you are in high school or college, then make fliers about cryonics, SENS, etc ... and just post 100's of them all over your campus in order to spread the word

Another place you can put them could even be in local churches

[Luna]

Myself, I am studying biotechnology so I can go to research.
You can do something samiliar!
If not, well, you can do whatever the rest said which is very very important!

[FieldMarshal]

I'm going to make huge money so I can donate. First I'll get myself a great mansions and real estate across America, some nice women, and a wildly profitable business. Then I'll state donating to ImmInst, SENS, nanotech, gene therapy, or whatever I can that will help find a therapy that can slow or stop aging. I'll create a charitable trust fund just for aging prevention and biotech advancement, as well for other things that could be important for humanity's futures (i.e. clean, cheap alternate to fossil fuels, space colonization, AI, social issues relating to the future, libertarianism).

There is nothing greater and more inspiring to serve a cause greater than myself. An ageless, utopian society, stretching far into space, and with greater technology, freedom, prosperity that people will take for GRANTED. That is my dream, and that is the vision that makes me into an undying flame, forever burning in pursuit of the sustenance necessary to keep me alive and make this world something more than mere mortality can bring. Man' destiny was to overcome its limitations!

[JonesGuy]

The main way to contribute is to contribute early. The cures for aging are going to be found according to accelerating technolgies, and whenever you're dealing with a compounding system, early investment trumps all. Help get things in motion now. Donate money now. Advance your education now. Invest in technologies now

[VictorBjoerk]

this thread seems to have died out...

more suggestions please!!!!

Maybe petitions about advancing aging research or something?




any ideas?

[Cyberbrain]

1. Doing the science

IF YOU'RE AN UNDERGRADUATE, GRAD STUDENT OR CURRENT POSTDOC IN BIOLOGY/MEDICINE: We badly need biologists to work on the various aspects of SENS. There are not many professors who are willing to focus explicitly on defeating aging, but there are plenty who are happy to supervise important projects that are interesting for scientific reasons and also have anti-aging potential. In general we have had great success by finding really committed young scientists who will join a laboratory with the right expertise and resources and will drive a SENS project forward without getting distracted by the short-term goals of getting as many publications as possible.

If you'd like to apply to do SENS research, please email me and tell me a bit about yourself; enclose your CV, and describe any current academic obligations (such as an ongoing PhD) and the amount of time you could commit to SENS work. Also please mention if there are any aspects of the SENS program that you'd be particularly well-qualified to work on, or where you have existing relevant experience.

2. Developing the science

IF YOU'RE A BIOLOGIST: read my papers on the technologies we need to develop in order to defeat aging. If you think I'm being too optimistic in those papers, read the key experimental work that I cite and see if that changes your mind. Also, listen and read about the conferences: the IABG 10, that I ran in September 2003, SENS 2, which occurred in September 2005 and was if anything even better than IABG10, and the most recent successful SENS 3. If you're still skeptical, email me to say why -- you might be right, but I deserve the chance to hear your reasons! Conversely, if you're inspired to work in any of these areas, email me so that I can put you in touch with others who are working on the same topic.

3. Learning to see biology as an engineer

IF YOU'RE AN ENGINEER, COMPUTER SCIENTIST, ETC: learn some biology. I started making really well-received contributions to biogerontology after I'd been reading the literature for TWO MONTHS - no kidding. Maybe I was lucky, but maybe it was just that scientists really need input from people with a different training and mindset. Don't take the easy way out of thinking that you can't help because you haven't got the right expertise. The best way for someone with mathematical or computer training to get into biology is just to dive in and not be scared of how many facts there are. Start with a graduate-level cell biology textbook, such as "Molecular Biology of the Cell" by Alberts et al. (If the phrase "graduate-level" scares you, another book by some of the same authors and targeted at undergraduates may be a good stepping stone: it's called "Essential Cell Biology" and it has been highly praised.)

It's important to learn masses of biology - certainly the whole of graduate-level animal biology - because aging is a chaotic interaction of lots of system failures going on all together and you won't understand it well enough to make a useful contribution if you only understand selected bits of how we work when we're young. If you want to go back to college and get seriously educated in the relevant fields, that means that at undergraduate level you should aim for the most general biology course, covering all aspects of animal biology - genetics, biochemistry, molecular biology, cell biology, physiology, the lot.

4. Solving biology's greatest computational problem

IF YOU'RE IN CHARGE OF A LOT OF CPU CYCLES: use them to contribute to the effort to predict protein structure from sequence (the "protein folding problem"). There are various distributed projects doing this; look here and here for more details.

5. Publicising SENS

IF YOU'RE A JOURNALIST: write about my work - but most importantly of all please interview other mainstream biogerontologists (the more senior and high-profile the better) and ask them to explain why they don't think we'd cure aging any time soon by the approach I advocate. And also listen to the talks from IABG 10 , SENS 2, and SENS 3.

WHOEVER YOU ARE: add a link to sens.org to your email signature file! This sort of advertising really gets noticed.

6. Donating to SENS research

IF YOU WANT TO HELP FUND SENS RESEARCH: read about the proposed Institute of Biomedical Gerontology (IBG) and contribute to SENS research funding, which will eventually support the IBG and is already supporting SENS research around the world.

7. Donating to the Methuselah Mouse Prize

IF YOU WANT TO HELP FUND LIFE EXTENSION RESEARCH IN GENERAL: contribute to the Methuselah Mouse Prize fund. No amount is too small! -- the number of individual donors is just as important as the size of the prize fund, in terms of showing public support for this effort.

8. Donate for free!

IF YOU SHOP ONLINE: Via the GoodShop website, you can make purchases at a wide range of online stores (including such well-known sites as Amazon, eBay, HSN, iTunes, Expedia and many others) and a portion of the money you spend will be donated to the Methuselah Foundation. The amount you pay doesn't change - the retailer pays a commission to GoodShop for pointing you to their store, and GoodSearch redirects this money straight to the Foundation!

If you're looking for books on the topic of life extension, then you can purchase these through the Foundation's hosted Amazon store, in which case an even greater fraction of the purchase price is redirected to us.

9. Linking to this site

IF YOU HAVE A WEBSITE, A BLOG, ETC: link to my site, spread the word to sites more popular than your own, do all the things a web site is good for.

10. Promoting SENS to friends/colleagues/family

WHOEVER YOU ARE: talk to your friends/family/colleagues about what life would be like without aging and find out what they don't like about the idea. Get better at rebutting their arguments. You'll find that they will very quickly realise they have no arguments, but then it gets harder, because they will try to change the subject. Don't let them get away with this. Read my reasons why I claim people should be working now to cure aging as soon as possible, and email me if there are ways in which you think they can be improved or added to. In fact, you're welcome to contact me with any suggestions you may have for how the SENS effort can be expedited, whether by improvements to this site, activities of the Methuselah Foundation, whatever.

IF YOU KNOW SOMEONE FITTING ANY OF THE ABOVE DESCRIPTIONS: why are you still reading? Go and tell them what they can do to help, and make sure they do it!

IF YOU'RE NONE OF THE ABOVE: well, become something! You will be surprised that achieving goals gets much easier and much more fun, once you are personally fully motivated for something and understand why you are.

[VictorBjoerk]

1. Doing the science

IF YOU'RE AN UNDERGRADUATE, GRAD STUDENT OR CURRENT POSTDOC IN BIOLOGY/MEDICINE ...

2. Developing the science

IF YOU'RE A BIOLOGIST ...

3. Learning to see biology as an engineer

IF YOU'RE AN ENGINEER, COMPUTER SCIENTIST, ETC...

4. Solving biology's greatest computational problem

IF YOU'RE IN CHARGE OF A LOT OF CPU CYCLES

5. Publicising SENS

IF YOU'RE A JOURNALIST

WHOEVER YOU ARE: add a link to sens.org to your email signature file! This sort of advertising really gets noticed.

6. Donating to SENS research

That was motivating...

By the way I'm now a member instead of registered user,If that now means I contribute to anything....

Edited by Michael, 03 September 2009 - 09:03 AM.
Trim quotes

[AgeVivo]

*precise* feasible contributions that we can do at home: http://lifespan.be
At first it was my own TODO list that I posted on the web because it was too big for me to be made quickly.
Please tell me/post here which points you would like to see added and which points you are/would like to consider.

methionine restriction is -in my opinion- the first thing we should consider because it clearly (experiment done several times in different rat strains) increases rats' lifespans by more than 40%, it does not requiere to fast, and we can start it right now... or preferably after having a bit better knowlege:
I've just started this page: methioninerestriction.org. if you want to help creating methioninerestriction.org/its content, tell me/post here which points you would like to see added and which points you are/would like to consider:

IT:
- make the methioninerestriction.org website (php mysql is already available)
- find how to make a forum that is shared among existing forums (imminst, mfoundation, others) rather than a new independent one
CONTENT:
- clear summary existing knowledge and ongoing research
- exhaustive list of existing knowledge and ongoing research (articles, current lab work, forum posts)
- age@start (ok if started at adulthood?)
- association of other food content (eg 0% cyst(e)ine to make methionine restriction work)
- possible side effects to observe (to avoid them) when practicing methionine restriction: rectal prolase?? (miller 2003)
- how to get food that contains less methionine (where to buy protein powder, at which cost, long term safety...; low-methionine aliments?; etc)
- possible mechanisms of action (hmm.. not sure it's a priority: it is easy to get lost)
- which lifespan tests are required?

HEAVY ACTION (if you are in a lab):
- perform lifespan tests
- other (?)

Right now I am focusing on which caracteristics of methionine restriction have been tried in animals and which ones should be at least tested before we can safely start methionine restriction. Your help is welcome. Thanks

AgeVivo

Edited by AgeVivo, 11 May 2008 - 04:40 PM.

[brokenportal]

Help me with this list of projects here in general: http://docs.google.c...evision=_latest

and to get more specific, line 15 with in it.

This is a list of projects Im outlining that Im working with and good ideas Ive seen around imminst that I want to help get moving. Its a prototype to experiment with the format and develop a list of functions that a permanent listing sharing document like that would need, but in the mean time its organizing projects.

[Mind]

Also, you can contribute to the Lifespan Twine

[gattaca]

That 10 point plan ignores the potential contribution of non-scientists, such as lawyers, policy makers, and lobbyists. One well placed individual in a respected and connected health organization such as the American Lung Institute or the American Heart Association could subtly create the momentum to fund 10 researchers.

The idea that only scientists can contribute to the cutting edge of immortalism greatly hampers its mainstream acceptance.

Edited by gattaca, 07 November 2008 - 04:26 PM.

[forever freedom]

That 10 point plan ignores the potential contribution of non-scientists, such as lawyers, policy makers, and lobbyists. One well placed individual in a respected and connected health organization such as the American Lung Institute or the American Heart Association could subtly create the momentum to fund 10 researchers.

The idea that only scientists can contribute to the cutting edge of immortalism greatly hampers its mainstream acceptance.

I completely agree. Just a bunch of scientists will never get us there.

[Forever21]

1. Become super rich
2. everything else

[Infernity]

Four ways to help.

Passive Support - being a part of our community, wanting to fight aging, being in favour of it - it helps, the more people like us, the bigger this interest it will be, the faster things will be done. Where I were until I were 12.
Convincing - promoting it by words, explaining... this is the active support, where I currently stand. You spread the word, and advertise.
Money - contributing for researches in the field, they cost a lot of money, very important. If I had the money, I might have been there. But I ain't.
Brain - you can study, teach, research and be a part of the core. I plan to be there after the army.

Edited by Infernity, 20 March 2009 - 08:27 PM.

[brokenportal]

Four ways to help.

Passive Support - being a part of our community, wanting to fight aging, being in favour of it - it helps, the more people like us, the bigger this interest it will be, the faster things will be done. Were I were until I were 12.
Convincing - promoting it by words, explaining... this is the active support, where I currently stand. You spread the word, and advertise.
Money - contributing for researches in the field, they cost a lot of money, very important. If I had the money, I might have been there. But I ain't.
Brain - you can study, teach, research and be a part of the core. I plan to be there after the army.

I think of it in terms of a similar list. Help with:

Science, includes brain
AGI, Includes brain
Exposure, includes convincing
Philanthropy, includes money

any of them could be supported passively I guess. Passive is good too. If people want to just give a little, just chat about the science and stuff once in a while, just put up a poster here or there or give an idea here or there then thats all great too. It reminds me of the saying,

“For need of a nail the shoe was lost, For need of a shoe the horse was lost, For need of a horse the rider was lost, For need of a rider the battle was lost, For need of a battle the kingdom was lost.”


I could be wrong but I think that the most important step at this time is the exposure. I think that we can help get this cause into the mainstream mindset of the world with in 5 years if we all pull together. I think we could do it in as little as 1 year but of course I could be way off. The faster we pull together and combine time and resources though the faster its going to happen.

Things have been coming together for the cause. The atmosphere is right, now is the time to grab all the projects "bulls" by the horns.

Of course, launching the cause into the mainstream mindset of the world will then have proffessionals in every field pouring into the cause in greater numbers and we will be set from there. We should then have all the science, agi and philanthropic people around here that we need and then some. Exposure is something we can all do, I think its the next main step. LEEEP is one of many ways to get involved with the exposure in varying levels. One and all, big and small, short and tall, there are simple and complex projects, there is something for everybody. Inquire today. State your interest at this link:

http://www.imminst.o...showtopic=27349

You can also get involved with other projects if you inquire just about anywhere in the forums with many members, PM just about anybody in management around here, Caliban has a broad initiative starting up in the imminst projects sub forum, you can inquire just about anywhere in there: http://www.imminst.o...p?showforum=306

Edited by brokenportal, 15 March 2009 - 08:47 PM.

[captainbeefheart]

Is there a link of leaflets we can print out at all? I have put together my own before but something that is handed out by a number of people would be good so we are constiant with are message. Dry cleaners, libraries, coffee shops, supermarkets are good places to see if there is any sort of community board or place to leave stuff I find and once you have your locations its a quick and easy thing to just dump a load of leaflets each time you're in town! I have a few places in town now that I can leave leaflets so if anyones got a goo one let me know and I'll start distributing.

[brokenportal]

There are a bunch of flyers here. http://www.imminst.o...o...14732&st=40

Me and Luke were tossing around the rough draft development of a project team to coordinate flyer out put. We are also working on a tri fold that we will see if we can get approved, then we can use that too. I can send you the rough draft if you want to help us get it into working order. We want to tie it to a chapters drive. It would be easy to ad on a chapters effort really. We would just be sure to have people, through packets of flyers we assemble for ready print use, put something like, "Find your local Indianapolis chapter at imminst.org/chapters" or something like that. But we would have to propose this and then get a chapters section with certain details added in first. If you want in on that then let us know.

As for flyers in general, anybody who doesnt keep a stack of flyers in their car needs to, or at least it seems to me. It drives me crazy when Im driving around and I dont have a stack of flyers in my car. For example, I went to the town I grew up in last night and I felt like I just messed up a big opportunity because I was unable to leave any literature behind when I left. To that end I am now intent on creating a small flyer the size of two business cards with basic info on it. Im going to go down to kinkos when I have the money and get a stack of glossy versions of these made. It will be at least the basics. So far my ideas are things like this arranged in squares here and there and centered with little pictures and logos:


Immortality Institute
Advocacy & Research for Unlimited Lifespans
Imminst.org

Technology frequently doubles. The stars are ours, help us shoot for them.

This is real. Join the movement. Don’t be left behind.

Aging is the accumulation of 7 forms of damage. Parts of the research are already demonstrated to work. We are ending aging. Join us.

Think outside the box.

We need your help like there is no tomorrow.

[captainbeefheart]

Left a load of leaflets at the laundret today, seems to have been some taken I think, hard to tell not sure how many I put there to start with from the previous time!

On a bright note on twitter this morning I noticed a post from someone not connected to LE posting about his blog entry in which he had gone to the 'Sceptics in the Pub London' where Aubrey De Grey was speaking about SENS. This seemed promising as he is a connection from my national health service and other political activity rather then anything already to do with this stuff. He seemed to welcome it although ultimately very sceptical of it actually being plausible like most people he said that evening. But still he linked to SENS site and what not and I have replied to him about it.

[brokenportal]

Do you want in on that flyers team captain? There are some tips we can share and ways to coordinate this for more output and targeting.

Speaking of speeches, Aubrey goes around tirelessly plugging the cause. There are a couple topics around here looking for people to speak for the cause. Maybe we should start getting people to list prices they would do it for. We could then keep that in mind and look for sponsor opportunities for such things when we can. I mean say, 50 people out tirelessly touring elementary, high schools and colleges, hospitals, health conventions and things like that is well, the thought of it makes me want to sell everything that I have and wave a big flag advertising for it while shooting a cannon until people look and see and help make it happen. .

We are on the verge of making more small, medium, and large things like this happen all around ImmInst and the cause as a whole, keep plugging along. Things like this are coming to fruition.

[captainbeefheart]

What does flyer captain involve?

[brokenportal]

Me and Luke were discussing the basics of it before.

As the project leader you would:


List this, or a version of this that we discuss and modify, as a project idea in the project ideas sub forum, for the recorders team to meet on and discuss. Recorders typically meet weekly in skype, on tuesdays now. If the first three things in this list here get approved, then you can get those set up and move on to the rest of the list.

-Request a chapters team sub forum to pin flyer packages in.
-Find a way to get one of those drop down lists where you type in your province, area code, state and all. Get one that covers the world.
-Request a drupal page be made explaining and linking up to chapters. Example of a drupal page at http://imminst.org/tv or http://imminst.org/newsletter

This is the flyers team, but we'll just plug chapters into it right away and kill two birds with one stone. After the initial stuff is set up, if its approved then the only thing youll really have to do for the chapters part of it is make sure that your recruits are putting, "find your local chapter at imminst.org/chapters" at the bottom of the flyers. We, I, the recorders, can then find another person to coordinate the chapters if people start coming in for them. Hopefully in time we'll be able to get links for each chapter, such as "imminst.org/chapters/omaha".

-Set up a recruit topic for the team.
-Optionally appoint 2nd and 3rd co captains to take your place when your not there, or if you leave, and for you to task things out to.
-Schedule a weekly meeting at http://imminst.org/meetings but make it optional if you want it to be.
-Gather a couple of packets of ready to print flyers. Make sure they say, "Find your local chapter at imminst.org/chapters" Just search through the art teams topics filled with flyers in various stages of completion. Find the good completed ones, or request that this or that flyer be completed or modified to fit your packages and then arrange them. Just take control of getting these packages done. Flyer creators want to work with people on things like this.
-Also put a recruiting plug in the volunteer opportunities topic.
-Remind the newsletter people to get it into the next newsletter.
-Find more ways to advertise it.
-But most of all, your main job will be recruiting people one by one. Find them in the chat, pm them, find people that seem like they would be into this, and then slowly, over time, recruit one by one by one. Its kind of hard, but thats where the progress is at. If more people do this then by the end of the year we will have dozens or more volunteers. Dozens more volunteers will then attract hundreds more. Youll want to set a monthly minimum for your recruits. Give them two options for a monthly goal. 1. Display set number of flyers, probably something like, put out at least 10 flyers per month, and take picture of themself by at least one of them and post it in a topic you set up for it in the team sub forum. 2. Get a recruit. If they can get a recruit for the team then all the better. Youll then want to also hold to the same standards your self to help lead the way.
-Give your team advice and support. If they need suggestions for the best places to put them up then do that. If they feel like it wont make enough of a difference then explain why it will.
-Expound on the incentives to them and sell them on volunteering. Tell them the small incentives are that their name gets published in various sources like the newsletter, and they get entered in the volunteer and team member prize drawing. Tell them its t shirts for now, but we are working to get the prize pool to grow. Tell them that it is getting a fund raiser and that it could raise any where from $0 to who knows, $5,000. Tell them the big incentives are that of course, its for the cause, but that most of all it inspires more people to volunteer and join teams, and that that is priceless and that that is what is going to get us there. Remind them of tipping points and things like the penny doubling effect. A tipping point is a small to medium sized number that you reach which causes somethings popularity to explode. In the penny doubling effect, if you double a penny once a month for 35 months you will end up with over a billion dollars.
-Keep a list of active volunteers in a topic for the prize system coordinator, me for now, to assimilate into the big volunteer list for the periodic prize drawing. Youll be entered in it too.
-Pat yourself on the back and say, dang, Im doing something about my own impending obliteration, inspiring more critical, crucial, life saving action, and helping create the potential for us all to harness the great glorious requisite 8, it sure feels good.


So basically, when this is all set up, all you will really need to do is put out 10 flyers once a month, or get one recruit, and that could be done in as little as an hour a month. This is a high impact team with low time commitments, so are you in for an hour a month? I'll send you a copy of 'Ending Aging' if you propose this, get it approved, and then complete your first month.

[captainbeefheart]

All sounds good to me will look at it more closly2moro morning when my head is clearer and I don't have any wine in my belly

[captainbeefheart]

Hmm on a second read I'm totally confused actually what exactly I'd be doing, I don't think there are any chapters in my area (Devon, UK)?

[brokenportal]

Ill break it down in basics:

Get sections set up by recorders.

Put some flyer packets in there.

Recruit team members.

Have them put out a minimum number of flyers or recruit at least once a month.

Keep a list of people active for that month handy.




There are no chapters in your area, but the flyers team can, besides just getting the word out in general, spark the potential for forming chapters. You dont have to worry about much in the chapters department except for having "join your local chapter at imminst.org/chapters" (if it gets approved) at the bottom of the flyers. If somebody from say, GreenWhich sees the flyer and goes to imminst.org/chapters looking for their chapter, and they are the first person, then they will be prompted to enter their name contact info and times they can typically meet. The second person that may happen along can then meet up with that person in the forum, discuss starting a chapter from there and then begin it. We would probably recommend they wait until they get at least 3 people, maybe more. They can then grow from there. If a section goes up, we can plot out simple things for chapters to do from there, and evolve it from there.