I think I would claim that the semipolitical fluff is probably the most valuable part of the book. In terms of moving the needle on mainstream acceptance, having a Harvard professor say fairly directly that “ageing is bad and we should cure it” is something I’d expect to make a significant difference.
Yeah, to be clear, semipolitical fluff is often valuable, and I agree that that’s likely the case here. But I don’t expect LWers to find anything new or interesting in that part of the book, nor is anything interesting there about how aging works. It’s for a different audience and a different purpose.
I think I would claim that the semipolitical fluff is probably the most valuable part of the book. In terms of moving the needle on mainstream acceptance, having a Harvard professor say fairly directly that “ageing is bad and we should cure it” is something I’d expect to make a significant difference.
Yeah, to be clear, semipolitical fluff is often valuable, and I agree that that’s likely the case here. But I don’t expect LWers to find anything new or interesting in that part of the book, nor is anything interesting there about how aging works. It’s for a different audience and a different purpose.
Yup, agreed.
(Unless you’re interested in how that kind of influencing is done, in which case it might make a useful case study.)