SECURING THE LONGEVITY DIVIDEND

Monday, July 23, 2007

Fairmont Hotel (same hotel as Transvision 2007 which will take place the following three days)
Chicago, Illinois

Sponsored by the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies

AGENDA

8:30am-9am Registration & coffee

9am-Noon Politics and Economics of the Longevity Dividend

– Jay Olshansky Ph.D. “Securing the Longevity Dividend”

– David Meltzer M.D., Ph.D. “The Political Economy of the Longevity Dividend”

Additional Speakers TBA

Noon-1:30pm Lunch

1:30-5pm Building the Campaign for the Longevity Dividend

– Aubrey de Grey Ph.D. “Arguing the Scientific Feasibility of Anti-Aging”

– Nick Bostrom Ph.D. “Answering the Philosophical Objections to Longevity”

– James Hughes Ph.D. “Building Coalitions for Anti-Aging Science and Medicine”

Additional speakers TBA

AUDIENCE

The targets for this event are:

– scholars and journalists interested in the future of aging and healtcare
– legislative aides and policy makers considering Longevity Dividend as a policy program
– pro-longevity, health care and senior activists interested in building the Longevity Dividend campaign

ADMISSION

Pre-registered participants will receive a course text of key readings

$150 Regular, $75 Student

Paypal registration: http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/eventinfo/londiv20070723/

Checks can also be sent to “IEET” c/o James Hughes, William 229B, 300 Summit St., Trinity College, Hartford CT 06106 USA

SPEAKERS

Stuart Jay Olshansky Ph.D. Professor of Epidemiology University of Chicago As chief author of The Quest For Immortality: Science At The Frontiers Of Ageing, Professor Stuart Jay Olshansky is a leading proponent of the study of the challenges and opportunities presented by increased human longevity. He has made several contributions to the scientific movement to extend and improve later life, and helped to introduce the concept of the Longevity Dividend – the sum of health, social and economic benefits that result from slower ageing. With a first degree in psychology from Michigan State University, he was awarded his master’s and doctorate in sociology by the University of Chicago in 1982-84. His publications as author, co-author or editor comprise 17 articles and two books. They include A potential decline in life expectancy in the United States in the 21st century for the New England Journal of Medicine; In Search of Methuselah: Estimating the Upper Limits to Human Longevity for Science; and In pursuit of the Longevity Dividend for The Scientist. Recent honours include a Fulbright fellowship in 2005.

David O. Meltzer, M.D., Ph.D. is an Associate Professor, Department of Medicine, the Economics Department, and the Harris School of Public Policy at the University of Chicago. Meltzer’s research explores problems in health economics and public policy. His recent work has focused on the theoretical foundations of medical cost-effectiveness analysis, including issues such as accounting for future costs due to the extension of life and the empirical validity of quality of life assessment, which he has examined in the context of diabetes and prostate cancer. He is also a faculty research fellow for the National Bureau of Economic Research and has served on a panel that examined the “Future of Medicare” for the National Academy of Social Insurance.

Aubrey de Grey Ph.D. is a biogerontologist, creator of the Methuselah Mouse prize, and Chairman and Chief Science Officer of the Methuselah Foundation. He designs interventions to reverse the cellular and molecular changes that accumulate with age and reduce remaining life expectancy. He has coined the term “strategies for engineered negligible senescence” (SENS) to describe these interventions, which he argues are the only feasible way to extend human lifespan by more than a decade. He has published widely on SENS. Aubrey is the co-founder and chief scientist of the Methuselah Mouse Prize, a contest designed to accelerate research into effective life extension interventions by awarding prizes to researchers who extend the lifespan of mice to unprecedented lengths. Aubrey serves as editor-in-chief of Rejuvenation Research.

Nick Bostrom Ph.D. is a philosopher at Oxford University, and the Director of the Oxford Future of Humanity Institute. He co-founded the World Transhumanist Association in 1998 and is a frequent spokesperson and commentator in the media. He has been a consultant for the Central Intelligence Agency (Washington, DC), and for the European Commission and the European Group on Ethics (Brussels). Dr. Bostrom’s research interests include the philosophy of science, probability theory, and the ethical and strategic implications of anticipated technologies. He has a background in cosmology, computational neuroscience, mathematical logic, philosophy, and artificial intelligence, and is the author of the book Anthropic Bias: Observation Selection Effects in Science and Philosophy (Routledge, New York, 2002).

James Hughes Ph.D., the IEET Executive Director, is a bioethicist and sociologist at Trinity College in Hartford Connecticut where he teaches Health Policy. He holds a doctorate in sociology from the University of Chicago, where he also taught bioethics. Dr. Hughes is author of Citizen Cyborg: Why Democratic Societies Must Respond to the Redesigned Human of the Future (Westview Press, 2004), and produces a syndicated weekly radio program, Changesurfer Radio. He is a Fellow of the World Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a member of the American Society of Bioethics and Humanities and the Working Group on Ethics and Technology at Yale University. Dr. Hughes speaks on medical ethics, health care policy and future studies worldwide, and appears often radio and television.

RESOURCES

* Longevity Dividend Statement
http://www.agingresearch.org/longevitydividend/overview.pdf

* the Longevity Dividend article in The Scientist (March 2006) http://www.the-scientist.com/2006/3/1/28/1/

* Longevity Dividend symposium at the US Senate building Sept 12, 2006. (Watch video of symposium) http://www.agingresearch.org/longevitydividend/overview.cfm

I know it’s pricey, but does anyone want to go with me?

While I feel that a lot of these things are moot points, I also feel a lot of important ideas will be brought up.

Let me know.

3 thoughts on “SECURING THE LONGEVITY DIVIDEND

  1. WOW… I actually know those names. Oh, but there’s San Diego.
    Still, it’s a few months away. Let’s cover the weekend first. You MAY think I’m a total spaz not worthy of sitting… and listening… to PhD dudes with you.

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