A series of activist events for radical life extension recently took place in Israel (reprint from Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/stambler20120126).

להמשיך לקרוא Demonstration for Radical Life Extension in Tel Aviv – Report ←

Thanks to Roy Cohen and Doron Dvory for the photographs

Please click the link below for more pictures
להמשיך לקרוא Demonstration for Radical Life Extension. Tel Aviv. Jan 20. 02012. Photos ←

High-tech entrepreneur and futurist Yanki Margalit, the founder of “Aladdin Knowledge Systems” –

To want life-extension is not something lyrical, it is something which is happening and which people are working for. I don’t think it will be an exaggeration to think that our children and the children of our children will live hundreds of years. There is nothing illogical about it. … I want to praise tradition, the tradition that increased human life expectancy from 20 to 50 to 80 years. What a wonderful tradition this is, the tradition of research, science, development, progress, foresight. We have to continue this tradition. What has been, will be. This process has to continue – 80, 100, 200 years, and who knows what next? But that will apparently be the lot of our children, not us. We belong to the generation of Moses. And if someone proves me wrong, I will be happy. Wishing us all success.

In the signs:
Science Against Aging
There are no conflicts among the living

The editors of “Let Us From Now On,” the poets Oded Carmeli (left) and Reuel Shuali (right), read from the journal manifesto

If enough of the living free themselves from the tyranny of the dead, we will all finally
direct our spiritual, material and scientific, resources to that which each of us wants and has been shy to demand: Life. Indefinite Life Extension…. How could the dead have blinded us from seeing the clear fact, that traditional societies shorten the lives of each of their members? It is a clear-cut fact, that those who follow their ancestors should expect a similar fate. Unlike the dead, there are no interpersonal or international conflicts between the living . All interests are in line with the one common interest: prolonging life. The lifestyle should serve life. The living should serve life. The living should write life. Let us from now on write the prolongation of life.

The poet Jeremy Fogel, one of the contributors to Let Us From Now On

I came to speak of the prophetic words of Nietzsche. … Are we able to imagine ourselves living forever? Can we master our mental and spiritual powers to withstand the idea of immortality? And even more than withstand it, will we learn to want it? How? …
The answer is quite simple: Art! Art is the healing sorceress that follows the history of humanity from its earliest moments. It is art that allows for the continuity, the affirmation of life and return.

Prof. Gabriel Moked, the writer, professor of philosophy at Ben Gurion University and editor in chief of the journal “Achshav” (Now):

“The struggle with death has been at the center of our poetry. And I think of two of my friends, who are not with us any longer, David Avidan and Yona Wallach. For them this was a crucial issue, and I think that Oded Carmeli [the editor of “Let us from now on”] is a worthy continuer of this tradition. … There is the so called “natural” approach that says: “What shall we do if our lives are very long? Won’t we be bored? I want to tell you that I am never bored. … I also reject entirely the so called “natural” approach saying that life and death are inseparable. No. There will be a breakthrough in biology.  The matter is rather trivial, a matter of manipulating proteins and cells. We may not solve all the great philosophical and religious problems… but we will live very long. … You know the Latin proverb “Ars Longa, Vita Previs” (the art is long and the life is short). I hope that not only the art but life too will be long.”

Ilia Stambler, an historian of life-extensionism at Bar Ilan University and an activist in the
Israeli Transhumanist community:

I am excited and honored to be at the world’s second demonstration for radical life- extension… It is possible and necessary to fight death. Death is not written in stone, and death from aging, as death from any other cause, is not written in stone, but is subject to intervention. … As one researcher of aging said, “Almost everyone thinks we need the battleships and almost no one thinks we need the old men.” Here we demonstrate against this attitude. Here we pronounce the ideal of radical life extension.”

Dr. Aubrey de Grey, Chief Science Officer at Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence (SENS) Foundation

Title: Dr. Aubrey de Grey: Go demonstrate for radical life extension

Caption: Dr. Aubrey de Grey, chief science officer and founder of the SENS foundation, founder of the Methuselah foundation and one of the world leading researchers, calls Israelis to support radical life extension.

Natasha Vita-More, Chair of Humanity + (World Transhumanist Association

Title: Natasha Vita-More greets the demonstrators for radical life extension
Caption: Natasha Vita-More, Chair of the World Transhumanist Association, greets the life-loving Israelis in honor of the demonstration against the grip of death in our life and for radical life extension

Greeting of Prof. Frank Tipler of Tulane University, US, the author of “The Physics of Immortality” who was at the time a guest of honor at Tel Aviv University