The MovementCreating the MovementMaking the moral and civilizational case for longevity — convincing governments and the public that living longer, healthier, is worth doing.
Level 3 · RadicalRadical Life ExtensionShe argues we should target the biology of aging directly — and fund it as the serious science it is.
Live Beyond · A Voice on the Quest
Raiany Romanni
Bioethicist & longevity advocate On the ethics and urgency of living longer · Boston
Raiany Romanni is a bioethicist who thinks about the biggest question a civilization can ask: what should we do — in which direction should we advance? Her answer is unambiguous. There is, she argues, no goal more important than the quest for life.
Extending life and diminishing suffering, she points out, has always been the goal of medicine — antibiotics and heart transplants already do it. In the twentieth century we doubled life expectancy; what we haven't yet done is add the matching healthy years. That, she says, is the direction to go.
She is impatient with the idea that aging is a mystical gift that gives life meaning. Biological aging is the direct source of most cancers, most heart disease, most dementia — it is biology, not destiny, and biology can be targeted.
Her mission is less about new lab results than about will: she believes we already have enough science to act, and that what's missing is public and political conviction — and funding. In the US, she notes, only a fraction of a percent of the health-research budget goes to the biology of aging.
Bioethics & longevityThe case for life extensionAging is biology, not destinyBoston · Harvard
Boston · Massachusetts
Where we met
An evening in Boston
We met Raiany in Boston — a fireside conversation with Marek and Alek about the ethics and the urgency of longevity: why extending healthy life is the most natural goal there is, and why a civilization that says otherwise is telling itself a story.
Boston
Harvard
A conversation on bioethics — what a civilization should do, and where it should advance.
The argument
Aging is biology
Not a mystical gift, but the source of most cancers, heart disease and dementia.
The gap
Will & funding
We have enough science to act — what's missing is public conviction and money.
"Life extension is the single most important thing we should be working towards — life is what underlies the possibility of everything else."
— Raiany Romanni, in Boston
On the quest
Moments in Boston
The conversationRaiany & Alek, Boston
In her words
Healthy, period
"It's not being healthy for an 80-year-old. It's being healthy, period — being biologically young."
Raiany Romanni · Boston
There's no question more important than what we should do — in which direction should we advance.
Raiany Romanni
Life is what underlies the possibility of everything else. If you're dead, you don't get to do anything.
Raiany Romanni
We've shown that aging is malleable. It's not like humans have some special spark that makes us different.
Raiany Romanni
We don't need more technical results to take action as a civilization — we need the will, and the funding.
Raiany Romanni
In his own words
Straight from the interview
From our conversation with Raiany in Boston — how she frames the case for longevity, why the "death is good" story is dangerous, and where the field really falls short.
Her view: the most natural goal
Medicine has always extended life and eased suffering, she says — antibiotics and transplants already do it. The wish to survive is the most natural thing a living thing can do; treating it as unnatural is just a story we tell ourselves.
"Life extension is the single most important thing we should be working towards."
Boston · from the interview
The dangerous narrative
The idea that death is a good thing, she argues, is dangerous. We drape a mystical quality over aging that stops us seeing it clearly — but it is biology, the direct source of most cancers, heart disease and dementia.
"Progress happens not one funeral, but one hardworking living human at a time."
Boston · from the interview
Her mission: will & funding
She's convinced we already have enough evidence to act. The work now is persuasion — convincing governments and the public that healthy longevity is worth doing, and moving real money toward the biology of aging.
"Only 0.54% of the NIH budget goes to aging — Alzheimer's gets about eight times more."
The video interview is coming. Recorded interviews go live after the launch of the film & series Live Beyond.
Selected passages from our conversation with Raiany Romanni — in Boston. Lightly edited for readability.
On the direction of a civilization
Raiany Romanni"We concern ourselves with what we should do as a civilization — and I'd argue there's no question more important than that. There's hardly anything more natural than the wish to survive. It's a feat of storytelling that we, a storytelling ape, manage to tell ourselves it's unnatural to extend the human lifespan, when for billions of years evolution has designed us to want to live."
On the goal of medicine
Raiany Romanni"Health is only occasionally the goal of medicine. Medicine's goal is to extend life and diminish suffering — antibiotics and heart transplants already do exactly that; it's not a new idea. But we've grown up telling ourselves aging is mystical, as if designed by kind gods to give life meaning, when biological aging is very often a real source of suffering — the direct source of most cancers, most heart disease, most dementias."
On the danger of the "death is good" story
Raiany Romanni"The narrative that death is a good thing is a very dangerous narrative. Progress happens not one funeral, but one hardworking living human at a time. There's nothing mystical about death — we assign this mystical quality to aging that prevents us from understanding it as biology. But it is biology."
On being biologically young
Raiany Romanni"It's really difficult for people to picture that what we're talking about isn't being healthy for your age — healthy for an 80-year-old. It's being healthy, period. Being biologically young. It's a very novel concept, and in good part most people object to life extension because they can't quite picture it in their minds."
On will and funding
Raiany Romanni"I'm convinced we don't need more technical results to take action as a civilization. My goal is to convince folks in government, and the general public, that this is desirable in the first place. In the US only 0.54% of the NIH budget goes to fundamental aging research — Alzheimer's receives about eight times more. We need to shift the focus towards the biology of aging."
More passages from the full interview will be published here.
Continue the quest
More minds on the quest
Raiany works at the Creating the Movement layer of the Longevity Map — the ethics and case for longevity. Here are others on the quest, and the full cast of 100+.
