User:Maxeto0910/Pro-aging trance

Pro-aging trance, also known as pro-aging edifice, is a term coined by British author and biomedical gerontologist Aubrey de Grey to describe the broadly positive attitude toward aging in society.

Concept
The pro-aging trance is a sociocultural phenomenon in which many people gloss over aging and age-related death through irrational thought patterns. One possible explanation is that the thought of one's own body slowly but ceaselessly deteriorating is so terrifying that it seems most sensible from a psychological point of view to persist in the position that aging is a necessary process and nothing negative or even positive, as well as giving life meaning until there is a realistic chance of being able to seriously do something about it. It is striking that, in defending their point of view, those affected often commit logical fallacies which, from experience, would not be expected of them in a different context. From a cognitive-psychological point of view, the pro-aging trance is therefore a form of self-deception.

Pro-aging consists both in the belief that the aging process is inevitable and will not be prevented by future developments, and in the view that any victory over aging would have mainly negative consequences. Examples cited include boredom, unresolved problems regarding current pension systems, and dictators living forever, but there is no juxtaposition or weighing of these potential disadvantages with the benefits of eliminating aging (such as saving about 100,000 lives per day).

De Grey assumes that robust rejuvenation of mice in the laboratory will provide a paradigm shift in society in this regard.

Issues
The pro-aging attitude is problematic because it takes time for people to break out of it and the development of comprehensive anti-aging therapies is delayed if there is no political and public acceptance of these therapies. Low research funding is one of the most significant aspects of this.

Furthermore, aging is not socially perceived as a disease to be fought, which is why it is more difficult to get support for fighting it than for fighting cancer, Alzheimer's disease, or similar diseases. De Grey sees the reason for this in the rhetoric of many gerontologists during the 1950s, -60s, and -70s, who usually drew a line in public communication between age-related diseases and aging itself, even though the former were merely late stages of aging and therefore should not be viewed independently of the aging process.

Literature