The world’s first International Longevity Day took place on or around October 1, 2013, in over 30 countries! http://www.longevityday.org/ These were many small steps on the great road to healthy longevity for all through support of longevity research!
1. Belgium A large press conference took place, were three experts spoke to journalists (representatives of the French-speaking press):
- Laurent Alexandre, physician, creator of the medical website Doctissimo, author of the book “La mort de la mort. Comment la technomédecine va bouleverser l’humanité” (The death of death. Technomedicine and how it will change humanity).
- Didier Coeurnelle, co-chair of Heales (http://www.heales.org), author of the book “Et si on arrêtait de vieillir ! Réalité, enjeux et perspectives d’une vie en bonne santé beaucoup plus longue” (“What if we stopped aging: Reality, challenges and prospects for much longer and healthier life).
- Miroslav Radman, cellular biologist, member of the French Academy of Sciences, author of the book “Au-delà de nos limites biologiques” (Beyond our biological limitations).
The amount of press and exposure to longevity from this event was great! At least 10 journalists were present from Belga, the RTBF, RTL, La Libre Belgique, Le Vif l’Express and other smaller media. Some media reports online: Levif, RTL, Lesoir Pictures of the press conference. Slightly earlier, an pro-longevity public relations action was conducted by the European Healthy Life Extension Society – Heales – at the Night of Researchers gathering on September 27 inBrussels. Thanks Martine Verhaeghe de Naeyer for this great work, especially the contacts with the journalists. Thx Guy Weets for filming. Thanks to Frederik Cheeseman for the pictures. Thanks Alexander Tietz and Victor Bjork for being there ready to help Thanks to all who made this possible!
2. Netherlands A small circle meeting was organized by Amanda Stoel in Bussum, Netherlands. The meeting included a discussion about how realistic longevity was, about google now taking on anti-ageing and about specific holistic ways to promote health and longevity. http://wellnesscoachamanda.tumblr.com/ https://www.facebook.com/groups/Longevity.Party.Netherlands/.
3. Ireland Martin O’Dea and Brian Collins report: On International Longevity Day Eve, the Irish group ‘Combat Degenerative Ageing’ held its inaugural meeting in Dublin. There were 6 attendees, though 3 others, to whom we must apologise profusely, turned up only to miss us due to our organisational teething issues!! Sorry guys! The meeting was very engaging and a presentation was visited through the event which ran from a supposed one hour and a half to much longer. The level of interest evident in the issues of longevity research and advocacy again indicative of what so many know – that when openly and honestly discussed this is just the most interesting field for interest and involvement for people with all different backgrounds, and is ultimately about us all. We look forward to holding monthly meetings and developing the organisation in other ways and in conjunction with the ever growing number of similar efforts around the world.
4. Australia A meeting for Longevity Day was organized by Adam Ford in Melbourne, Australia. As the original announcement eloquently put it: “Lets celebrate the impetus for research and development into mitigating the harmful effects of aging, increasing the likelihood of a world free of age-related disease! Now you know you should be coming for a fascinating discussion on recent developments in R&D into longevity/rejuvenation research. Can you dig it?” Adam Ford reports: “We had about 20 people turn up. … There were a lot of great discussions.” Also in honor of the International Longevity Day and the almost concurrent Google’s Anti-Aging initiative (announced on September 18 and appearing on the cover of Time magazine on September 30), interviews were conducted by Adam Ford with stalwarts of the worldwide longevity movement: Ben Goertzel, Aubrey de Grey, Christine Peterson, Karl Hale, James Hughes, Anders Sandberg: See also the group https://www.facebook.com/groups/LongevityAllianceAustralia/
5. Israel On October 1, the International Day of Older Persons/ International Longevity Day, the conference took place in Tel Aviv, at the Hemda Science Education Center, titled “From Biology of Aging to Longevity and Quality of Life”. The conference was a success! Over 70 researchers and research students participated, from all the universities in Israel, with 16 presentations by some of the top researchers. Over 30 submissions were made for the excellence prize for the research of biology of aging, longevity and quality of life, and 8 prizes were awarded to 8 applicants from 8 different laboratories! Many thanks to Dr. Eitan Krein, director of the Science program at Hemda Science Education Center in Tel Aviv and Yanki Margalit, the social entrepreneur and Chairman of SpaceIL Foundation – for making this event possible! Many thanks to the judges of the excellence prize: Prof. Vera Gorbunova (US), Prof. Zipora Yablonka-Reuveni (US), and Prof Gil Atzmon (US). Here is the conference program, Video-recordings of the conference presentations and some pictures. In addition, over 150 people attended the session for the general public that was held after the conference. Special thanks to Dr. Yaakov Ben Shaul for helping to spread the word about the conference and the subject of longevity research in the Israeli mass media on that day, including several tv, radio and newspapers interviews! Many thanks to all the wonderful people who attended, contributed proposals and presentations, helped and supported! Hopefully, many more activities in support of longevity research will follow – raising public awareness and lobbying for the field of the biology of aging and longevity research and its importance for the public health in Israel and everywhere!
6. India Two seminars on longevity research were organized in India by members of India Future Society http://indiafuturesociety.org/ One was organized by Siddartha S Verma in Bangalore. As Siddartha reports: The event started with 6 to 7 people in Bangalore. In the first session, a video talk on “Google vs. Death- Google’s and other Anti-Aging Initiatives” by Ben Goertzel was shown to the audience. Then, a video talk on “Google Vs. Death: an Anti-Aging initiative- Progress in regenerative medicine” by Aubrey de Grey was shown. A half an hour break was provided to the audience for lunch, in which Italian Pizzas were offered for free to them. Following that, there was a talk on “Longevity Day” for 30 minutes (by Siddartha). Audience were then engaged in a Game Round for 45 minutes, in which a list of Longevity related questions were asked to them. An interesting set of answer was obtained. Each of these rounds were followed by a Question and Answer session. Penultimate session was a 30 minutes TED talk by Aubrey de Grey on- “Anti-aging research and Biology”. Last session was a closing and feedback session for all the people. Some pictures from the meeting.
Another longevity day event was organized in Uttar Pradesh by Avinash Kumar Singh of the India Future Society As Avinash reports: The Longevity Day event/open discussion was conducted at Harcourt Butler Technological Institute Kanpur on 1st October, 2013. The target audience of this event were Professors and Researchers. The Agenda of the discussion was: 1. What is Longevity ? 2. Why is it needed ? 3. What are the possible ways of Longevity ? The main speaker of the event was Mr Rahul Singh, who is a researcher in the Vedic Sciences. He explained about possible longevity ways, trends and reasons behind the death. In the open discussion most of the people agreed and concluded that Digital Immortality is the only possible way. People also believe that Indian Vedic Science already has several ways to achieve longevity. One of the most common ways is the Kundalini Energy Control or in other words advanced level of Yoga to achieve Longevity. At the end of Open Discussion, We’ve shown a movie “Transhuman” of about 30 min focused on Digital Immortality. Some pictures from the meeting.
7. Pakistan Two meetings for longevity day were organized in Pakistan by members of Longevity Pakistan group. One was organized at the Department of Zoology, University of Peshawar, Pakistan, by Wisal Khan. As Wisal reports, about 70 people participated including advanced students (MSC, MPhil, and PhD) and about 10 Faculty members. A presentation was shown about the basic concepts of Transhumanism and Life extension An additional event was organized by Prof. Muhammad Aslamkhan at the University of Health Sciences, Lahore, Pakistan, where about 30 people participated. The paper was read by Prof. Aslamkhan entitled “Longevity: Add Years to Your Life – But How?”
8. Russia Longevity Day in Moscow. Elena Milova reports: The Russian Transhumanist Movement – RTM (http://transhuman.ru/) and the Culture Center “NEGA” jointly conducted the celebration of the International Longevity Day on October 5, 2013, aligning with the International Day of Older Persons. The speakers were the futurologist Danila Medvedev and gerontologist Igor Artyuhov. They convincingly told the audience about the latest achievements of medicine allowing us to hope for a radical extension of longevity, already in the next 20-30 years. There was an encouraging wave of questions and a short discussion dedicated to problems of implementing the already existing technologies. Among other topics, there was discussed the necessity to recognize aging as a disease. Such a recognition should introduce into practice the prevention of degenerative aging, which, among other benefits, would simplify the procedures for registration and massive application of geroprotective substances. The complete video-recording of the meeting And photographs, including photographs from the NEGA website. During the meeting, there were shown video greetings from supporters of life extension from other countries, representatives of the International Longevity Alliance (ILA): Ilia Stambler, the longevity scientist and activist from Israel (in Russian and English) and a team of longevity scientists and activists from Ukraine: Anton Kulaga, Dmitry Shytikov, and others (in Russian and English). Information and advice regarding the prevention of the aging process by the already known methods were presented by representatives of the Russian Transhumanist movement. These were accepted with gratitude and interest. Later, in the lobby, interested persons could buy the book by Aubrey de Grey – “Ending Aging” in Russian and the book by Mikhail Batin “Cures against Aging”. After the event, the participants had hot beverages and simple refreshments, and networked with speakers and activists of the Russian Transhumanist Movement in an informal atmosphere. Three days after this event, on October 9, 2013, the Culture Center NEGA hosted the meeting of the RTM speaker Elena Milova and the young scientist Yury Matveev with the club of WWII veterans – “My Dear Friend”. The supporters of radical life extension told the veterans about the activity of the RTM in the field of science popularization, and the key task – the delay and reversal of aging thanks to advances of the Scientific and Technological Progress. Despite the advanced age of the majority of the meeting participants, they actively participated in the discussion, asked questions, commented on the situation with healthcare and expressed ideas on what they can do to help science. In addition, the Longevity Day initiative was supported by the Russian Science for Life Extension Foundation (http://www.scienceagainstaging.org/) and the Fedorov’s movement (http://nffedorov.ru/)
9. Ukraine In Kiev, Ukraine, the International Longevity Day was celebrated at the Institute o Gerontology of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences (Kiev, Vyshgorodsky St. 67), in the main conference hall. The presentations included – Foreword by the organizing committee; a video-greeting to the conference participants from several countries: France, Israel, Venezuela Lectures were presented by Anton Kulaga (International Longevity Alliance) on International activism for life prolongation, Dmitry Shytikov (Laboratory of immunology and pathophysiology of the Kiev Gerontology Institute) – Crowdfunding as a method of financing lifespan extension experiments – practical experience, Alexander Kolyada (Laboratory of Epigenetics of the Kiev Gerontology Institute) – genetics and epigenetics of aging, and Volodymir Semenyuk – The role of citizen science in the combat of aging. At the time of the Longevity Day, a pioneering initiative was being conducted by the Ukrainian longevity activists and scientists, in cooperation with international activists – the crowdfunding effort to fund lifespan extension experiments in mice: http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/i-am-a-little-mouse-and-i-want-to-live-longer The crowd-funding campaign was a success! As the organizers, Anton Kulaga, Edouard Debonneuil, Irina Pishel, Dmitry Shytikov, and Daniel Wuttke report: Little mouse crowdfunding campaign – mission accomplished! So now it is time for hard work on experiments and producing valuable results. Thank you so much for making this possible! http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/i-am-a-little-mouse-and-i-want-to-live-longer?c=activity
10. France
A Longevity Day meeting was organized in Sceaux, close to Paris, France, by Edouard Debonneuil, head of the Longévité & Santé (Longevity and Health) Association. The meeting took place on Saturday afternoon, October 5th. This interactive conference included presentations by prominent researchers of the biology of aging, such as Fathi Moussa, who presented on his work on “Fullerens and Longevity”.
11. Germany On October 1, a discussion group about Longevity Research was organized at the University of Bremen, Germany, by Hashem Al-ghaili. In addition Hashem published a promotional appeal about the Longevity Day via his extensive social network (over 25,000 followers). Hoping for more field activity and online presence for longevity in Germany! The same can be said for Austria, where efforts to organize meetings and create website presence have been made in Vienna.
12. The UK. Several events took place in the UK in conjunction with the Longevity Day. On September 29, the eve of the Longevity Day, David Wood, head of London Futurists, organized a public broadcast on Projects to accelerate radical healthy longevity the London Futurists hangout with Franco Cortese Ilia Stambler, Maria Konovalenko and Aubrey de Grey. The exploration started with a meetup, held as a Google “Hangout On Air” and broadcast live on YouTube, in which four panellists shared news and views on: • Projects they (or their organisations) have recently completed • Projects they are working on and/or planning to do next • Any issues that are blocking them from doing more. The panellists also discussed ways in which a wider community of people can usefully become involved in activities to accelerate radical healthy longevity. http://hplusmagazine.com/2013/10/01/projects-to-accelerate-radical-healthy-longevity-the-london-futurists-hangout-with-franco-cortese-ilia-stambler-maria-konovalenko-and-aubrey-de-grey/ Here is the complete video-recording Complete project description. – An additional meeting was held at Queen’s Larder, in London, by members of the Zero State group, on September 28: According to the organizer, Amon Kalkin: One of the most energetic areas associated with Futurism, Transhumanism, & Singularitarianism is that of longevity research and advocacy. While Zero State has not run any kind of longevity research or advocacy project up until this point, we intend to set up a group to explore the possibility of supporting longevity activism led by other organizations, with particular emphasis upon those which are affiliated with the broader Wave movement for positive social change through technology (of which ZS is a part). In short, Zero State is evolving to become part of something larger and even more exciting, and that process is marked by a new engagement with longevity activism. We’re very excited about this, and hope to become a significant part of the movement to defeat ageing over the next few years, particularly through vigorous support of other organizations. Please read the full report about this meeting here: http://wavism.wordpress.com/2013/10/21/wave-longevity-advocacy-sep-28th-meeting-summary/ Or here: http://www.longevityday.org/united-kingdom.html
In addition, the Longevity Day was endorsed by several UK life-extensionist organizations, such as: Longevity Intelligence Communications (LIC), recently started by Stuart Calimport, promoting collective actions and public affairs for longevity http://lonintelcomms.tumblr.com/ Longevity Intelligence Communications also promoted a petition in support of the Longevity Day https://secure.avaaz.org/en/petition/Celebrating_International_Longevity_Day_during_the_International_Day_of_Older_Persons/ The leader of the British Longevity Society, Marios Kyriazis, also expressed his support. A major action of the society is planned for October 29, when the society will organize a meeting with the Minister for Care and Support Mr Norman Lamb, at the House of Commons. Also, support for the Longevity Day was expressed by several prominent members of the Methuselah Foundation and SENS research foundation, also during the recent SENS6 conference, earlier in September in Cambridge http://www.sens.org/outreach/conferences/sens6. Most prominently by Aubrey de Grey.
13. The US On October 1, there was a special meeting titled “Hacking Health: Dr Sean Mooney on how computer geeks are fixing our biology” at Health Extension Salon, in San Francisco, California. As well said by the organizer, Joe Betts Lacroix: “Most biologists are now underqualified to interpret massive genetic data, so we need to bring in the tech community to save our lives. Dr. Sean Mooney, the director of the Bioinformatics Department at the Buck Institute on Aging, described how people with computer skills are making the next wave of discoveries relating to our biology, and in particular, how we can learn to prevent age-related diseases by mining the data in our genomes. Soon, that data will multiply by orders of magnitude, as DNA sequencing goes clinical. Celebrate INTERNATIONAL LONGEVITY DAY! = Oct 1st
In addition, the Longevity Day was endorsed by many life-extensionist organizations in the US, including: Longecity, whose director Justin Loew also endorsed this day on TV. http://www.longecity.org/forum/topic/64402-making-the-longevity-day-on-october-1/ Fight Aging https://www.fightaging.org/archives/2013/10/october-1st-is-international-longevity-day.php IEET – Institute for Ethics and Emerging Tecnnologies http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/print/8217 Humanity Plus Magazine http://hplusmagazine.com/2013/10/01/projects-to-accelerate-radical-healthy-longevity-the-london-futurists-hangout-with-franco-cortese-ilia-stambler-maria-konovalenko-and-aubrey-de-grey/ Immortal Life