Noubar Afeyan: belief

Transcript context

…When do you think human beings will start living to age 140 in okay enough shape? Tricky question. Assuming that that would be a desirable outcome is a big assumption for me. I don’t want to guess on that. I’ll tell you why. For somebody who has few bounds on what I’m willing to imagine, I think that longevity as a goal versus longevity as a result separate the way in which different people think. I think of longevity as a result. I think that if we can deliver on health security, that is, getting people — most of their lives — to be defended in terms of their health versus treated with their diseases, chances are the result of that will be longer and longer lives, but also longer, healthier lives and presumptively happier lives. The notion that we can come up with disease treatments that keep people alive, but are largely just fighting the disease with all the damage that it’s already done — that to me is the less desirable future vision. When do you think we will arrive at the point where dementia and Alzheimer’s — they may still be present, but they will not be significant social problems in the wealthiest countries?…

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