This sounds to me like "Appeal to nature" [0]. You can point out that tuberculosis or black death are/were also natural.
I think if Aubrey de Grey says something along these lines it is only to point out how absurd this line of reasoning can be. After all, he's on the frontlines of battle against ageing and death itself.
In my country (Poland) I see a lot of people doing such rationalizations; I'd wager it comes from thousands of years of experience with nature humanity has (usually passed down from elders to children within a community), combined with lack of trust in science and industry (no doubt warranted at times). I also see some people behaving like human interventions were somehow tainting things on immaterial level - hence GMOs are evil, because humans dare to play God.
I'm personally not in the "rationalizing" camp, but then again I always liked concrete and steel more than grass and wheat, so I don't attribute it to my superior rationality or something, but rather to an accident of watching too much Star Trek as a kid.
[0] - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appeal_to_nature
[0] - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appeal_to_nature
On Sun Nov 09 2014 at 14:19:38 Mega [Andreas Stuermer] <masterstorm123@gmail.com> wrote:
-- Hi everyone. I came across something I wanted to share...--We saw a film in class about parasites (e.g. toxoplasmosis) which does influence mammalian brains. Makes us more risk prone, and probably has other unwanted side effects.After the lecture I came across an interesting phenomenon I termed "Alii quoque". One girl (she's especially very "natural" and believes what the general media consensus is, rather anti-GMO too) then spoke to a few others rationalizing "In former times all people lived on farms and all had these parasites, and they also became something (German slang for "they also made through life").Now that was very interesting. Because my thought obviously, maybe therefore they lived 20 years shorter, or didn't reach their full mental potential? (I just wouldn't wanna have a brain parasite, no matter if it wouldn't hurt)So, is this probably more rationalizing than being content with the status quo. But on the other hand, society sees status quo as perfect too. No need to achieve more.If it is the same phenomenon "others have been smoking too for years, longer than me. So it can't be that bad for me", "Everyone says GMOs are bad, so science is a conspiracy", "Everyone prescribes Thalidomide so it can't be so risky" etc etc. Aubrey de Gray can say that loud too, "Ageing and death have always been there. People always die, so it's natural. It's a good thing"Maybe it is also related to herd instinct, when there is fire in the building, everyone presses against the door (which can only be turned inside).I have this impression that I'm probably part of the minority who don't rationalize (or try not to). It feels like 99% of the people do. What's your experience with "Alii quoque"? Do other countries have other ratios of "ratio guys":"rationalizers"? Or are humans born superstituous rationalizers? Is this neccessary for most people to cope with reality?
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