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by cornholio 1134 days ago
From the article, this molecule sounds like a big hammer that you can pound cell reproduction with, affecting a wide range of systems in unpredictable ways. Whereas what we need are precision watchmaker tools and a diagram of the watch.

On thing I think is well established about aging is that it's not a single factor disease that you can "cure" by removing a well defined cause. Rather, it's a pervasive accumulation of entropy in various systems from various causes that evolution had no ability to correct, so that slowing aging down and reversing it involves a massive amount of tinkering with the watch.
2 comments
amts 1134 days ago
The anti-aging effects of rapamycin support the opposite of "pervasive accumulation of entropy" theory - which is that aging is a distorted development program, rather than random accumulation of entropy.

The definition of "random" implies by default that lack of information or knowledge on the object in question is primarily due to cognitive (and hence measurement) limitations of its users, rather than something being 100% objectively ingrained in reality.

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cornholio 1133 days ago
Only chink in that theory is rapamycin doesn't seem to have anti-aging effects per-se, rather a wide array of systemic effects, some beneficial to longevity in special circumstances. In the general case, you definitely won't be extending lifespan of the elderly by modulating down their immune system or promoting amyloid formations.

There is definitely "real" randomness, DNA replication errors are truly random because they are caused by quantum molecular effects. You can characterize them statistically and reduce their incidence, for example by controlling the diet or shielding the body from UV, but you can't measure those causes, only observe their effects. At best you could correct them, starting from a known-good-copy, as indeed cell biology already does.

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tysam_and 1134 days ago
It has so many immunity-related side effects IIRC.

Lowering the drawbridge and opening the gate lets a lot of things happen/go in, both good and bad.

I've heard that it's oftentimes a trade between two extremes, cancer or...well to be honest I've completely forgotten the second one. Huh.

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