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Comment by soderfoo | Hacker News Reader

Is aging a disease?

I think this question is pivotal in how one analyzes the benefits and disadvantages in this space. The article links to a story that covers this a bit. I feel truly undecided on this question.

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Technically, I think if something happens in 100% of cases that's the mainline and not an exception case that you can analyze/fix. So probably we cannot say it's a disease.

Now, in order to stop aging you will need to understand and stop all processes that lead to aging. everything we are doing today, in all domains, is trivial compared to understanding biology (even for simpler organisms). The complexity is just mindblowing (google: roche merabolic map poster). It would be probably easier (although this is still far far far out of reach) to create a new body and transfer the brain's content than to stop aging.

That should not stop us from trying to understand it though and there may be "low hanging fruits" that may add 1-2-10 years to life.

Another thing worth pondering is quality of life. If you could live the same amount of time without most of the decline that comes with old age who wouldn't want to do that?

If we collectively decide “yes” then maybe we can finally start devoting more resources to identifying and treating the underlying causes.

Let’s get rigorous and start separating snake oil from real science backed treatments.

It highly depends on the definition you use, gather them from wikipedia and a few dictionaries and you will see. Looking at it from different languages is also worth looking into. I see it as an unavoidable (so far and in my opinion for a long time) disposition to go through a process. As such I would not consider aging in general as a disease. But individual processes taking place in aging would be in my opinion, especially since they can happen at earlier age in some people. I am much more interested in providing better quality of life to people impacted by those than to everybody (the societal impact would be quite dramatic).

I don’t want to live forever, but I sure would be happy with 20 year old me’s ability to recover from physical exertion and injuries.

I'm nearly 40 and I still recover as fast as 20 year old me, if not faster.

My secret? Do not stop exerting.

(Exercise multiple times weekly)

Take care of your knees - the human knee is really a fuckup of evolution!

I discovered natural running in my twenties. It's a game- changer for your knees.

My 20 yo self could do it without exerting, though.

My thoughts exactly. If we live forever there is no need for (or resources to sustain) children. That would be bad in many ways.

I do totally agree that pouring “discretionary investments” into healthcare is perhaps more kind that other things (Mars fantasy).

>Is aging a disease?

The question is more relevant from a political/legal perspective but less so from a technical perspective. From a technical perspective the most important question is how do we go about fixing it.

This is a short story about thatquestion:

https://nickbostrom.com/fable/dragon

Any change in my body that is causing me discomfort is a disease.

I wouldn't characterize growing pains as a disease.

Sunburn?

Car crash?

So, stubbing your toe is a disease?

Anyway, the cure is a free, lifetime supply of fentanyl. Be careful what you wish for.

It’s a genetic disease in my main. The fact that it affects most animals is a matter of quantity, not quality.

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