Should Effective Altruists Fund Aging Research?

By David Robert @ 2026-06-09T13:48 (–1)

I wrote a short paper arguing that it is morally permissible for effective altruists (and everyone else) to fund research to hasten the defeat of human aging. Any feedback is appreciated.

https://philpapers.org/archive/ROBWEA-2.pdf

dan.pandori @ 2026-06-10T23:50 (+2)

[I did not downvote]

The paper IMO spends too little time on the important question, which is how much impact you get per dollar. The paper instead assumes that you could plausibly hasten developing full aging reversal by 1 second for 5,500$.

For neglectedness, it would be good to discuss current funding levels. Gemini suggested ballpark 11 billion annually.

For tractability, it would be good to discuss particular research lines that have had success. For example, how much have we lengthened mice lifespans? What is our rate of progress there?

Also, many folks on the EA Forum dislike posting links without copying the text to the forum. I mostly agree, although IMO it is fine to do in a 'Quick Take'.