On Saturday, August 26, 2000 1:54 PM stdnt428@hampshire.edu wrote:
> As someone who works in the dot com, health media industry, I have to say
> that even Extropians have only begun to scratch the surface of what Life
> Extension and Radical Health opportunities are already available.
Agreed.
> In addition to supplements, there are a host of herbs which have not been
> subject to scientific study. The few herbs which clinically have been
> proven effective for different conditions, such as green tea, ginsing,
> ginko biloba, st johns wort, etc. are only a few.
Agreed, though that's also true of lots of human-made drugs and other
supplements.
> Thosands of years of trial-and-error with "mythological attribution of
> effects" has discovered some natural substances which may or may not have
> clinical properties. With the addition of scientific methodology, we have
> the ability to assess these substances, and discover their scientific
> mchanisms of action.
The problem: so many substances, so little time and so little money.
I'd like to see better methods of studying the problem. Elsewhere I
suggestion using genetic algorithmns to search the space of potential
cryoprotectants. Perhaps a similar tack could be used searching the space
of potential life extension chemicals, though that's probably too broad.
Maybe if we limit it to specific properties, such as antioxidant
capabilities, we could reduce the amount of nonvirtual work to be done.
Cheers!
Daniel Ust
http://uweb.superlink.net/neptune/
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