That it is a reaction to that event is undeniable. Is it a rational one is the issue.
One of my long-term habits is to add interesting books to my Amazon wishlist. One such item was Transcend by Ray Kurzweil and Terry Grossman MD. Having become relevant rather than merely interesting, I bought it. The Introduction convinced me:
Until quite recently, progress in health was hit-or-miss. ... We lacked the means to design medical interventions for a carefully targeted purpose. ... But now this situation is changing -- and very rapidly. ... healthcare has now become an information technology.... a key characteristic of [which] is very rapid exponential growth.As a software guy I can see the truth of that. Computers have transformed the world in my lifetime; from "Giant Electronic Brains" in air-conditioned rooms to a global network in my pocket. My £99 smartphone has similar processing power and memory as my desktop machine had 10 years ago; and that cost £1,200. Today that money would buy a PC with as many cores as a respectable data centre had then.
(My wife is a living example too. She survived a critical illness in 2006 thanks to Drotrecogin alfa: a drug only available since 2001.)
Modern biology is more about crunching numbers than sloshing test tubes. Hence the birth of companies such as BioProximity.
Once drugs can be designed rather than discovered, the pharma' industry will experience (is beginning to experience) its own variation of Moore's Law. Aviation went from hopping a few metres along a beach to a return trip to the moon in a mere 66 years. Human genetics had its first hop in 2000. By 2066 (or 2045 if Ray Kurzweil is right) ageing will be curable. The trick is to live long enough to benefit; and that's what this quest is all about.
Despite the above, my core attitude is simple: what (of importance) can I lose? If all my efforts add not one second to my life, it will have been an interesting (and there is nothing more interesting to me than me!) journey.
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