Pro-aging trance
Encyclopedia
The "pro-aging trance" is a term coined by Aubrey de Grey
to describe "the impulsion to leap to embarrassingly unjustified conclusions in order to put the horror of aging out of one’s mind". According to de Grey, the pro-aging trance or "pro-aging edifice" is a psychological strategy which people use in order to cope with aging, and which is rooted in the belief that aging is immutable and unavoidable. De Grey refers, in this regard, to the general public's ambivalence towards aging. For example, he states that life extension
is often viewed as prolonging, rather than postponing, the period of decrepitude characteristic of old age, a belief that de Grey calls the "Tithonus error", in reference to the myth of Tithonus
. He describes this attitude as a rational response to the perceived inevitability of aging. However, de Grey believes that defeating aging is feasible and that the pro-aging trance represents a huge barrier to combating aging.
Aubrey de Grey
Aubrey David Nicholas Jasper de Grey is an English author and theoretician in the field of gerontology, and the Chief Science Officer of the SENS Foundation. He is editor-in-chief of the academic journal Rejuvenation Research, author of The Mitochondrial Free Radical Theory of Aging and co-author...
to describe "the impulsion to leap to embarrassingly unjustified conclusions in order to put the horror of aging out of one’s mind". According to de Grey, the pro-aging trance or "pro-aging edifice" is a psychological strategy which people use in order to cope with aging, and which is rooted in the belief that aging is immutable and unavoidable. De Grey refers, in this regard, to the general public's ambivalence towards aging. For example, he states that life extension
Life extension
Life extension science, also known as anti-aging medicine, experimental gerontology, and biomedical gerontology, is the study of slowing down or reversing the processes of aging to extend both the maximum and average lifespan...
is often viewed as prolonging, rather than postponing, the period of decrepitude characteristic of old age, a belief that de Grey calls the "Tithonus error", in reference to the myth of Tithonus
Tithonus
In Greek mythology, Tithonus or Tithonos was the lover of Eos, Titan of the dawn. He was a Trojan by birth, the son of King Laomedon of Troy by a water nymph named Strymo . The mythology reflected by the fifth-century vase-painters of Athens envisaged Tithonus as a rhapsode, as the lyre in his...
. He describes this attitude as a rational response to the perceived inevitability of aging. However, de Grey believes that defeating aging is feasible and that the pro-aging trance represents a huge barrier to combating aging.