For many if not most of us, life extension is a significant aim or even the primary goal. If someone here were looking to start or change careers, what choice would be the most conducive to the success of this social movement?
At first it may seem that the only valid choice is to go into a biomedical field focused on gerontology and work in academia or private R&D, and that would be great since there's such a deficit of biomedical specialists actually working on this problem, but on closer examination, the life extension movement has also other needs, so you may as well be a film director directing a film to raise awareness, a sociologist surveying the public, an accountant doing Sirra Science's taxes, a lawyer defending Alcor in court or a politician answering to the life extensionist electorate. However, whatever profession you consider, a common theme will appear: the need for funding. Funding is the limiting factor. If you have the kind of money, you have the ability to invest heavily in aging-related research, development, education, media, public events, electoral campaigns and lobbying.
And so I pondered abut the dilemma of becoming a biogerontologist versus going into a very high-paying industry, hoarding as much economic and non-economic power* as possible and investing it in life extensionist organizations and the aforementioned services. Eventually, while swaying toward the latter, I accepted that all else being equal, the optimal option for most people was in the middle: a well-paying occupation which at the same time intertwined with the biomedical field closely enough, having at least some direct relevancy for biogerontology and offering plenty of opportunities to meet and deal with people from within the anti-aging movement. Suggestions on what exactly that may be are very welcome. The first thing that comes to mind is medical venture capital. That might be a nice choice for me personally because I like finance and the country I'm planning on working in for at least several years has a very active venture capital industry. Finance appears to be the most profitable thing after crime anyway.
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If you live in non-developed country and are of a relatively young age, you should not ignore the possibility of emigration.
Notice that life extensionism is popular among IT professionals (Eliezer Yudkowsky, Aubrey de Grey, Ray Kruzweil; Sergey Brin, Peter Thiel, Larry Ellison). This is consistent with Silicon Valley's open-minded hippie vibe.
* Note that economic and non-economic power includes acquaintances, connections, familial ties (not excluding marriage), popularity (being a public figure allows communication with the masses), reputation (prestige helps), assets (money is an asset too), high office (not necessarily public), legal rights (e.g., residence permit, inheritance, lawsuits) and political influence (direct and/or indirect).
Edited by Bogomoletz II, 21 April 2014 - 11:33 AM.
Finance appears to be the most profitable thing after crime anyway.
Ain't that the truth. There's quite a lot of overlap between the two, in various ways. (Kleptocrats, Oligarchs, Goldman Sachs...) If you could acquire a really insane amount of money, then you could fund LE research yourself.
If you could acquire a really insane amount of money, then you could fund LE research yourself.
Exactly. That's the point. The research, the development, and all the other necessities, such as convincing other wealthy people to join and/or invest.
Besides that, we in the life extension community should facilitate a culture according to which it's fashionable and laudable for regular people of unremarkable means to donate modest sums to the cause. Organizations should offer the option of making the donation either anonymous or public and propose to share the fact of donation on social media or, if the donation is made offline, opt for the classic tactic of giving the donor an exclusive commodity, such as a wristband, as evidence of the donation.
Ain't that the truth. There's quite a lot of overlap between the two, in various ways. (Kleptocrats, Oligarchs, Goldman Sachs...)
Depends on the person, really. Most people's understanding of what exactly finance professionals actually do other than buying out companies and reselling securities, or how it benefits the economy at large, is faint, so it's incredible to some that there are people who do go into the industry with idealistic goals or a romantic mindset. Yes, high finance, at least, is profitable, and you're probably managing large sums of wealth all day, and in some areas there's quite of a cut-throat environment, so it would be surprising if it didn't attract a lot of greedy, money-coveting types. The culture in IT is different, but are startup founders who work comparable hours motivated solely by the prospect of changing the world?
finance... depends on what area. it can be extremely stressful in some areas.
True. Wall Street, even on the buy side (PE/VC, etc.), is far from being a low-stress industry, and stress is definitely something you want to pay attention to if you're planning on staying alive for a long while, as per the longevity escape velocity. Indeed, it's not encouraging at all to hear the occasional news story about an investment banking intern who kicked the bucket after an all-nighter of overwork. But everything in life carries risk. The question is whether the benefits exceed the costs (including risk costs).
I would think the best job for longevity would be like a physical therapist or something very low stress, good hours, health oriented.
But how is it conducive to the cause of the life extension movement? People with less stressful jobs may have a better life expectancy, but that doesn't mean anything if they fail to speed up medical progress enough to keep themselves alive.
Unemployment followed by a stay at home self-employment is the safest career method imho.
Coming up in 2nd place would have to be an Undertaker.
Edited by Bogomoletz II, 22 April 2014 - 08:42 AM.
You don't necesserially need to become a funeral director. Its just incase you don't turn out to be as sucessful as you want to be, there is a huge demand for new people in that field. god knows my life hasn't turned out the way I wanted it to be and it is always good to have a backup plan incase things get screwed up.
There are a great deal of benefits to staying at home from an employment point of view, the mere fact of staying relativley immobile at home enables you to disregard the risks of death associated with: travel by rail, car, plane, muggings, shootings, accidents involving heavy machinery and truck loads tipping over, refuelling your car, crossing the road, pollution from highway traffic emissions being concentrated in an enclosed space, asbestos in buildings, radioactive decay of building structures, emotional strain from working with colleagues and bosses or other students, Food posioning from an inadequatley prepared meal, public bathrooms, the common cold, an outbreak of H1N1, Legionnaires disease from improperly cleaned air coolers in restaraunts, peer pressure to consume alcohol, allergies, the list is endless.
I myself am allergic to Latex, Synthetic fibers, inhaling a couple of types of pollen, and am highly sensitive to sunlight (I burn easily and my eyes get sore).
You can even reduce the risk of purchasing groceries by having everything delivered to you at home. I do it this way.
FYI: I'm terrified of cars and transportation for the simple fact that it is a hundred or so large metal objects hurling towards or away from you at speeds which make it difficult to stop safely in time.
It also almost completely eliminates the cost of transportation. And the risk of dying.
You are always in an atmosphere which you can control. eating a diet which you can maintain. Along with healthly habits like scheduled exercise which you can enforce. Followed by a schedule which you can plan out. Like clockwork, everything in your life will be perfect, planned, organized, controlled, manipulated if needed, etc.
I myself am a stay at home worker, I work on computers, and I am eventually going to be getting into miniatures. I also maintain a garden of healthy vegetables which I eat straight off the tree or plant.
My diet is oriented towards being Japanese instead of western. Westernized food makes me feel like I've been tranquilized.
Unemployment followed by a stay at home self-employment is the safest career method imho.
Coming up in 2nd place would have to be an Undertaker.
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Edited by Layberinthius, 22 April 2014 - 03:01 PM.
Unemployment followed by a stay at home self-employment is the safest career method imho.
Coming up in 2nd place would have to be an Undertaker.
Safe in what respect? In the respect of avoiding occupational fatality/injury or of the extremely overrated advantage of career stability, sure, it goes. However, in the respect of contributing to the cause of the life extension movement, it's nearly as unsafe is it can possibly get. An undertaker, much less an unemployed person, is very unlikely to be making the big bucks, to be amassing any other kind of power, to be working on any aging-related projects, to be actively interacting at the workplace with any fellow life extensionists. This is not the way you go when you hope to achieve longevity escape velocity, yet this is a question of life and death.
You don't necesserially need to become a funeral director. Its just incase you don't turn out to be as sucessful as you want to be, there is a huge demand for new people in that field.
The demand will almost certainly rise in the upcoming years, considering the demographic effects of the baby boom.
it is always good to have a backup plan incase things get screwed up.
Now that is good advice. I will even go as far as to say that it's reasonable to maintain several layers of backup plans.
You can even reduce the risk of purchasing groceries by having everything delivered to you at home. I do it this way.
FYI: I'm terrified of cars and transportation for the simple fact that it is a hundred or so large metal objects hurling towards or away from you at speeds which make it difficult to stop safely in time.
There are a great deal of benefits to staying at home from an employment point of view, the mere fact of staying relativley immobile at home enables you to disregard the risks of death associated with: travel by rail, car, plane, muggings, shootings, accidents involving heavy machinery and truck loads tipping over, refuelling your car, crossing the road, pollution from highway traffic emissions being concentrated in an enclosed space, asbestos in buildings, radioactive decay of building structures, emotional strain from working with colleagues and bosses or other students, Food posioning from an inadequatley prepared meal, public bathrooms, the common cold, an outbreak of H1N1, Legionnaires disease from improperly cleaned air coolers in restaraunts, peer pressure to consume alcohol, allergies, the list is endless.
It also almost completely eliminates the cost of transportation. And the risk of dying.
Some psychiatrists may hasten to diagnose you with thanatophobia. It's categorized as a phobia, an irrational fear, but it only seems irrational to those who have been blinded by the pro-aging trance with the mantra that "everyone dies and that's just the way it is."
Unemployment followed by a stay at home self-employment is the safest career method imho.
Coming up in 2nd place would have to be an Undertaker.
Safe in what respect? In the respect of avoiding occupational fatality/injury or of the extremely overrated advantage of career stability, sure, it goes. However, in the respect of contributing to the cause of the life extension movement, it's nearly as unsafe is it can possibly get. An undertaker, much less an unemployed person, is very unlikely to be making the big bucks, to be amassing any other kind of power, to be working on any aging-related projects, to be actively interacting at the workplace with any fellow life extensionists. This is not the way you go when you hope to achieve longevity escape velocity, yet this is a question of life and death.
You don't necesserially need to become a funeral director. Its just incase you don't turn out to be as sucessful as you want to be, there is a huge demand for new people in that field.
The demand will almost certainly rise in the upcoming years, considering the demographic effects of the baby boom.
it is always good to have a backup plan incase things get screwed up.
Now that is good advice. I will even go as far as to say that it's reasonable to maintain several layers of backup plans.
You can even reduce the risk of purchasing groceries by having everything delivered to you at home. I do it this way.
FYI: I'm terrified of cars and transportation for the simple fact that it is a hundred or so large metal objects hurling towards or away from you at speeds which make it difficult to stop safely in time.
There are a great deal of benefits to staying at home from an employment point of view, the mere fact of staying relativley immobile at home enables you to disregard the risks of death associated with: travel by rail, car, plane, muggings, shootings, accidents involving heavy machinery and truck loads tipping over, refuelling your car, crossing the road, pollution from highway traffic emissions being concentrated in an enclosed space, asbestos in buildings, radioactive decay of building structures, emotional strain from working with colleagues and bosses or other students, Food posioning from an inadequatley prepared meal, public bathrooms, the common cold, an outbreak of H1N1, Legionnaires disease from improperly cleaned air coolers in restaraunts, peer pressure to consume alcohol, allergies, the list is endless.
It also almost completely eliminates the cost of transportation. And the risk of dying.
Some psychiatrists may hasten to diagnose you with thanatophobia. It's categorized as a phobia, an irrational fear, but it only seems irrational to those who have been blinded by the pro-aging trance with the mantra that "everyone dies and that's just the way it is."
Please tell me when a logical rational fear of dying replaced common sense? If anything I've found that too many people are foolhardy when it comes to situations where they could be seriously injured or killed. Where their ego will override their ability or means to maintain a healthy level of distance from a dangerous object. The hunter Steve Irwin comes to mind who was pierced through the chest with the bar of a Stingray while filming. Another person who comes to mind took his car around a bend and ran it into a telegraph pole at 120km/h. I've had the opportunity to be in the car of that person at one point, he terrified me.
There is also my dad which was in a truck accident and pinned inbetween the front and rear of the trucks seats, broke his back in 3 places.
Yet I still drive my car on a fairly regular basis. Around cars that would kill you in an instant if they ever ran into me. But I try and limit its use because I know just how dangerous it can be to be on the roads. I'm terrified of the fact that nobody actually cares enough to do anything about car safety, the people who drive their cars on the roads around here are apsolutle maniacs.
I've seen two crashes this year alone at the exact same intersection, in both situations the car that was turning right into a sealed road left too short of a gap and came in contact with a car on the highway. Several Ambulances came to the scene on the last crash.
So yes, I have a perfectly rational and logical fully functioning brain, which keeps me safe from harm. There is no phobia about having a rational fear of death or injury.
Telecommuting I hope is becoming commonplace, it would be foolhardy for us to be working in the city if the same job can be done at home, saving on pollution, energy consumption, and money.
I studied for many years and worked for many years, each time taking the bus to and from the place of study. I don't have a fear of dying anymore than you do. I may have a phobia of other people.
There is only two sources of employment for me at the present moment is retail work, at a service station, where there is no bulletguard. The other source of employment is being a security guard. I actually have a conversation with one of the guys who works there behind the counter on a fairly regular basis and he says that you shouldn't worry about when you are going to die, if it happens it happens.
If I have any phobia its that Those kind of people scare me. they scare me because if that is the kind of viewpoint that they have about death then what would happen if they were faced with the choice of saving my life or doing nothing to save my life? Obviously if they took it seriously then they wouldn't care wether I died or not, infact some people that I know would hasten to wait a minute or two to see if they can do anything about me before calling an ambulance.
So at the present moment no matter what I do I will be forced into a position of employment which leaves me in a statistically higher chance of dying than average.
In this situation it seems completely rational to want to work from home, and frankly I see it as a better choice anyway, as I'm less likely to be around noxious oxidizing exhaust chemicals, pollutants and irritants (I'm allergic to a few things), protruding loads from Small Utility Trucks while I'm walking along the side of the road or crossing the road (We call them Utes here, several people this year alone have died from this exact accident.). The list is again. endless.
Also, if I want to become immortal, I'm going to need to stay alive, at the present moment there is no cure for a head decapitation or bullet to the heart at point blank range, I certianly cannot afford cryogenics at the present moment so if I die I'm gone forever. The first thing that I pay for will probably be a heart transplant.
And what would be more valuable than somebody who was alive at the very beginning of Immortality research, able to help other people along the entire way? The longer that you live the better it will be for the research as you will be able to help out people immediatley with their research. If we pile a decade of education into you and you die then we will have to start all over again..
I find it quite illogical that someone who wants a career as a life extensionist would turn down the opportunity to preserve their own life and maintain it long enough so that immortality can be achieved in themselves.
But C'est la vie.
What's the logic behind being this individual in the music video?
He has no brains, due to a prodigious use of alcohol.
He has women but only for as long as he can get money.
He has a Gumby Sex slave, but we all know that Gumby is a guy.
He walks around wearing bling and driving in 4x4's without a care in the world as to the road rules.
He has a death wish for you and for the people around him, yet they are all friends.
Yet these are the people who we interact with each day, the kind of people who would think this music video to be somehow cool or interesting are the ones we socialize with on a daily basis.
At least that is how it is for me, for you in an academic environment I'm sure things are different, except for when you need to transport from work and back to home.
Edited by Layberinthius, 26 April 2014 - 06:42 AM.
Please tell me when a logical rational fear of dying replaced common sense? If anything I've found that too many people are foolhardy when it comes to situations where they could be seriously injured or killed.
That was my point.
In this situation it seems completely rational to want to work from home, and frankly I see it as a better choice anyway, as I'm less likely to be around noxious oxidizing exhaust chemicals, pollutants and irritants (I'm allergic to a few things), protruding loads from Small Utility Trucks while I'm walking along the side of the road or crossing the road (We call them Utes here, several people this year alone have died from this exact accident.). The list is again. endless.
Also, if I want to become immortal, I'm going to need to stay alive, at the present moment there is no cure for a head decapitation or bullet to the heart at point blank range, I certianly cannot afford cryogenics at the present moment so if I die I'm gone forever. The first thing that I pay for will probably be a heart transplant.
And what would be more valuable than somebody who was alive at the very beginning of Immortality research, able to help other people along the entire way? The longer that you live the better it will be for the research as you will be able to help out people immediatley with their research. If we pile a decade of education into you and you die then we will have to start all over again..
I find it quite illogical that someone who wants a career as a life extensionist would turn down the opportunity to preserve their own life and maintain it long enough so that immortality can be achieved in themselves.
There are two things you can and should do to survive, to gain the opportunity for indefinite survival; that is, achieve longevity escape velocity. Avoiding accidents and maintaining a healthy lifestyle is the first, relatively minor thing to do, and it's relatively minor to the other thing because at this stage in the progress of medical science there's hardly anything that can be done to guarantee a lifespan exceeding the 80-95 years mark, which even then doesn't come without great bodily deterioration. The other, more promising thing to do, is to support anti-aging and longevity R&D; directly if you are a biomedical specialist, indirectly if you are a layperson: through funding, awareness raising, glamorization, discussion and, if need be, reform. Albeit affordable to some degree for almost anyone, it requires economic and/or non-economic power, the more the better.
"Because aging is a biological process I would suggest that [if you are looking for a career in biogerontology,] you include biology courses in your education. [. . .] Nevertheless, do not overestimate the importance of choosing the right courses and university. [. . .] There are physicists, physicians, engineers, biologists, geneticists, computer scientists, mathematicians, and many other different professionals studying aging right now. Therefore, my advice is for you to learn different skills, understand the science of aging, and focus on the area you find more exciting or more adequate to your personal situation. (As a side note, I would also recommend you develop good communication skills, both written and oral, as these are crucial not only in academia but in many other careers as well.)" --João Pedro de Magalhães, http://www.senescenc...ogy_career.html
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