1 - Three Stages in Human Evolution

2 - Stone Age Humans

3 - Greece & Rome

4 - The 17th and 18th Centuries

5 - The Social Reforms of the 19th and 20 Centuries

6 - 1950 to 2000 - The Coming Gerontocracy

7 - The Problem

8 -The Solution

Life-extension Science is about physical health - its maintenance, improvement, and restoration. It is not about geriatrics, as is commonly assumed. There is one, and really only one, true approach to Health; and that approach is dictated by the laws of human biology. Most fundamentally, health is a property of Biological Vitality; and Biological Vitality is a product of Cell Number, the Rate of Cellular Operations, and the Quality of Cellular Components and Products (i.e., Health = Cell Number, Rate, & Quality). This applies to all Tissues, regardless of type. Irrespective of the particular agent that might be the cause, Disease is any significant decline in Cell Number, Rate, and Quality of particular Tissues. And Ageing is now the single most consequential disease, it being the underlying cause of senile conditions as well as all of the chronic diseases. If we were able to develop a technology which could restore and maintain Biological Vitality (Number, Rate, & Quality) to a level that was comparable to what you had at about age 20, then your functioning would be optimal; disease would be minimal; if disease did occur, medicine would be highly effective and recovery would be rapid; ageing would not occur, and your potential life-span would be open-ended. That, of course, will seem like science fiction; and, indeed, it is at this point in time. But then, a hundred years ago, so were most of the inventions which are now part of your daily existence and which you take for granted. Toward accomplishing this feat, most of the basic science is already in place and developments are much further along than most people realize, including scientists. At this time, with well established practices that are available now, which are relatively easy to implement, and cost only a modest amount of money, individual health can be improved significantly, such that a good 20-30% increase can be gain in healthy life-expectancy in most individuals. This is accomplished mostly by a healthy life-style, good disease prevention technology, and state-of-the-art medical management - what we call Phase I Applications. During the next 5-10 years, significant innovations in disease prevention and medical management will occur and some means to slow ageing will be verified, thus resulting in additional increments in healthy life-span. And in the foreseeable future, methods for biological regeneration will be invented, thus putting us solidly on the path toward the ultimate goal. There are only a few areas of biology where that can be accomplished. We track developments in all of them and keep our people posted on significant developments. In terms of our Research Strategy, we believe that the most direct and fundamental approach is in the area of stem cell proliferation, directed migration, and tissue-specific differentiation using transcription factors or what we call "eumitotic agents". Persons who have been participating in personal life-extension (or just staying in touch with developments) will be in the best position to take advantage of and benefit from incremental advances and fundamental breakthroughs.

All of this requires a fair amount of explanation; however, in as compressed a manner as possible, those are the precepts of life-extension science; and they constitute the basic frame-work upon which our Program is constructed. This, of course, is explained fully in the materials that are provided with the Membership.