Yuri Deigin*Speaker
What do I do at the Foundation? I write, edit and translate all kinds of texts – from Facebook posts to multi-page investment memorandums. I am also helping the Foundation convey a seemingly simple thought that aging is a curable disease - both to people and to governments worldwide. For this I take an active part in the organization of hearings in the Russian Duma, I write to American lobbyists, I started a petition for the Canadian House of Commons, etc. And to educate the masses I help organize public lectures of various Foundation speakers, and sometimes even deliver them myself. In my spare time from the Foundation's activities, I also try to be a full-time entrepreneur – in the last 7 years in the field of biotech and pharmaceuticals, and before that in IT. And of course I have a degree in Computer Science.
Why did I choose to volunteer at the "Science for Life Extension" Foundation? Firstly, because aging is Humanity's biggest problem – once we solve it, we can then afford to solve all the others (the colonization of Mars, renewable energy, ethical farming, etc.), and do so at a leisurely pace, now that we'll get rid of the ticking time bomb placed inside us by our genes. Secondly, it's quite an interesting challenge in itself – to solve the biological puzzle of death, and hack its mechanisms. And thirdly, purely out of my inherent rebelliousness – millions of years we and our ancestors have been slaves of our genes by performing for them the role of Xeroxes, but now we finally have a chance to rise up and wrestle control from our genetic masters. Spartacus would be proud!
Obviously, I also believe that aging and death are just bad. Or, rather, forced aging and death are bad. If someone wants to grow old, or voluntarily withdraw from life, it is their full right. But the lack of a symmetrical human right not to die is unfair. Why do people have to die or get old, if they do not want? I believe they should not! Just as people do not have to die from cancer, AIDS, hepatitis, or Alzheimer's. Same way we chose to stop having to die from bacterial infections 100 years ago. Thanks to antibiotics, we defeated infections; thanks to science, we have transformed HIV/AIDS from a death sentence into a manageable chronic disease, we have also made significant progress with cancer. Ultimately, science will prevail over aging, I have no doubt. I only doubt that I would live to see that day. And I would really like to! And what I would like even more is for my loved ones to do the same, especially those loved ones who are older than me. So I am doing everything in my power to speed up the victory of science over aging. Because each day we waste, we waste a hundred thousand lives!