How we fight death
What do we do, depending on how difficult we believe ageing is?
The decision this question informs
Decide what kind of problem we are trying to solve
Make the assumptions behind each longevity programme explicit. Different accounts of the difficulty call for different work; keep alternatives available until evidence distinguishes them.
A proposed answer
The Spectrum of the Fight Against Death
What should happen next?
Unresolved: Which obstacles are failures of implementation, which require new methods, and which require a different account of ageing?
Next work: Use the spectrum to state the assumption behind a programme, then identify one observation that would make us change that assumption.
What would change the direction: A repeatable result that a simpler approach cannot explain, or a simpler intervention that achieves the required function, would change where effort belongs.
Proposed agenda, not a statement that a study is underway.
Then the priority changes: Prioritise testing whether an existing approach can deliver the intended function under the conditions that matter.
What this does not establish: This is an assumption to test. Availability of a drug or technique does not establish a longevity benefit.