Life Extension Pseudoscience and the SENS Plan

Recent scientific advances have taken gerontological research to challenging and exciting new frontiers, and have given many scientists increased confidence that human aging is to some degree controllable. We have been on the front lines of some of these developments and the speculative discussions they have engendered, and we are proud to be part of the increasingly productive biomedical effort to reduce the pathologies of aging, and age-associated diseases, to the greatest degree possible—and to extend healthy human life span to the greatest degree possible. In contrast to clearly justifiable speculations regarding future advances in human longevity a few have made claims that biological immortality is within reach. One, Aubrey de Grey, claims to have developed a “detailed plan to cure human aging” called Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence (SENS) [1, 2]. This is an extraordinary claim, and we believe that extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidentiary support. In supplementary material posted on the Technology Review web site we evaluate SENS in detail. Briefly, here are our conclusions: 1) SENS is based on the scientifically unsupported speculations of Aubrey de Grey, which are camouflaged by the legitimate science of others; 2) SENS bears only a superficial resemblance to science or engineering; 3) SENS and de Grey’s writings in support of it are riddled with jargonfilled misunderstandings and misrepresentations; 4) SENS’ notoriety is due almost entirely to its emotional appeal; 5) SENS is pseudoscience. We base these conclusions on our extensive training and individual and collective hands-on experience in the areas covered by SENS, including the engineering of biological organisms for the purpose of extending life span. Most scientists believe pseudoscience poses a real danger to the integrity and public image of science. Since experts recognize SENS is pseudoscience, but it nevertheless has been featured widely and uncritically by popular media, we devote the rest of this short note and the first section of our web supplement to a more general response to this troubling aspect of SENS. We believe the future will bring advances that are today almost unimaginable. How will the non-expert separate the false promises of pseudoscience from the likely outcomes of rigorously applied biomedical science and engineering? The long history of pseudoscientific claims shows us there are obvious identifying features of pseudoscience that are rarely or never associated with real science or engineering—but what exactly is pseudoscience? The prefix “pseudo” means “false” and pseudoscience is generally accepted to mean practices that only superficially appear to be science, but violate central scientific precepts. One of the most clearly illustrative definitions of pseudoscience—particularly in the context of this SENS Challenge—was given by Richard Feynman, a widely respected physicist and staunch defender of science. He called some kinds of pseudoscience “cargo cult science,” a reference to practices of certain South Sea Islanders during World War II (pp. 310-311, [3]). Upon seeing the building of airports which brought in military cargo planes loaded with assorted material goods, the cargo cults built their own crude airport reproductions to lure in these inexplicably airborne behemoths loaded with fabulous cargo. Their simulated airports were complete with torch-lit runways, a “control” hut complete with bamboo antennas, and even a “controller” wearing wooden pieces over his ears as mock headphones. Feynman rightly thought that these elaborate but obviously superficial simulacra collectively made a powerful metaphor for pseudoscience camouflaged by superficial aspects of real science. One can easily imagine why the cargo cults went through these rituals since rich rewards appeared to descend miraculously from the heavens for others who did—but the planes never landed for the cargo cults. Most of us know through experience that there are several missing ingredients preventing the cargo cults from succeeding. But what if we weren’t familiar with airplanes and airports, and the elaborate and technologically advanced civilization that produces and supports them? Are there general principles that can help people to avoid this type of wasted effort, this wishful thinking that results in a focus away from real problems and real solutions? We agree with Feynman that an important ingredient missing from cargo cult rituals and pseudoscience is a certain kind of integrity, a skeptical unwillingness to settle for convenient but superficial explanations no matter how dearly or desperately we wish them to be true. There are other important differences between science and pseudoscience, and a primary feature of our web supplement is a list of “General Features of Pseudoscientific Plans for Extension of Human Life Span” that we assembled with the help of some of our colleagues. This list is modeled after other published lists concerning pseudoscience [4], and it is designed to help non-experts distinguish life extension pseudoscience from legitimate science and engineering—including challenging but legitimate new developments. Not surprisingly, most or all of the points on our list clearly apply to the SENS plan and Aubrey de Grey. However, given the recent successes and highly emotional nature of life extension research, Aubrey de Grey is not the first, nor will he be the last, to promote a hopelessly insufficient but ably camouflaged pipe-dream to the hopeful many. With this in mind, we hope our list provides a general line of demarcation between increasingly sophisticated life extension pretense, and real science and engineering, so that we can focus honestly on the significant challenges before us. REFERENCES 1. de Grey, A.D., et al., /Time to talk SENS: critiquing the immutability of human aging./ Ann N Y Acad Sci, 2002. *959*: pp. 452-62; discussion 463-5. 2. de Grey, A.D./Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence (SENS): A practical way to cure human aging/. 2006: http://www.gen.cam.ac.uk/sens/. 3. Feynman, R.P. and R. Leighton, /"Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!"/ 1985, New York: W.W. Norton and Co. 4. Friedlander, M.W., /At the Fringes of Science/. 1998: Westview Press.