Hey, this is a great post! I’m really happy to see it, and it was a really nice and unexpected surprise.
I don’t know if you have seen it, but I recently published the first post of a (will be) series in which I’m trying to build a framework for evaluating the cost-effectiveness of any given aging research/project: this one.
In your model you only account for DALYs prevented for measuring impact, while I would like to account for many more things: all the considerations arising from the concept of Longevity Escape Velocity (e.g. bringing its date closer by one year could save roughly 36,500,000 lives of 1000QALYs each, using a conservative estimate), DALYs prevented, the economic and societal benefits of increased healthspan (the longevity dividend), the value of information.
I would also like to explore moral considerations that could potentially influence impact, such as if age discounting has to be applied and how population ethics influence the estimates, since at a first glance an impersonal view seems to imply that a sharp downward correction is necessary (although upon further analysis it turns out that this is not the case).
Another difference is that I’m trying to build the tools for evaluating specific interventions inside this cause area, and not strictly the cause area as a whole. I’m taking this approach since I believe there are some interventions that would be very ineffective to fund and others that would be extraordinarily cost-effective.
One implication of this is how I will measure tractability and neglectedness: to estimate neglectedness I will probably use the arguments OpenPhilanthropy’s made on the topic but with an important addition: it would be informational to list the organisations working on facets of aging that are the least further along in the pipeline that goes from in vitro research to clinical application. We can probably start from the lifespan.io’s Rejuvenation Roadmap to build a list of this kind. For evaluating tractability there will be probably some scientific arguments to make.
At the end I will also analyse specific non-profits and interview some people.
In case you want to take a glance on what I’m currently writing, I gave you access to my current drafts (which are not polished at all, but may give you an idea of how I’m proceeding): this, this and this.
P.s: Nine months ago I also made this estimate of the expected cost per life saved of the TAME trial. It’s not great, but it may be of interest. It was made before I begun thinking about the framework.
Edit: Are you planning on doing other cost-effectiveness estimates on this topic? Should we unite forces?
I might do more cost-effectiveness estimates, but it’s not a top priority—I’m currently running the Longevity Research Institute, a nonprofit devoted to experimentally testing anti-aging interventions, and I have a lot of object-level work to do there. Definitely happy to consult, make intros, and share my own existing notes whenever you have questions.
Yes, my estimates are a large underestimate of the potential benefit of life-extending therapies if you assume that they extend life at all, rather than just delay the onset of disease-related disability. I wanted to indicate that the impact is large even with rather pessimistic assumptions.
Hey, this is a great post! I’m really happy to see it, and it was a really nice and unexpected surprise.
I don’t know if you have seen it, but I recently published the first post of a (will be) series in which I’m trying to build a framework for evaluating the cost-effectiveness of any given aging research/project: this one.
In your model you only account for DALYs prevented for measuring impact, while I would like to account for many more things: all the considerations arising from the concept of Longevity Escape Velocity (e.g. bringing its date closer by one year could save roughly 36,500,000 lives of 1000QALYs each, using a conservative estimate), DALYs prevented, the economic and societal benefits of increased healthspan (the longevity dividend), the value of information.
I would also like to explore moral considerations that could potentially influence impact, such as if age discounting has to be applied and how population ethics influence the estimates, since at a first glance an impersonal view seems to imply that a sharp downward correction is necessary (although upon further analysis it turns out that this is not the case).
Another difference is that I’m trying to build the tools for evaluating specific interventions inside this cause area, and not strictly the cause area as a whole. I’m taking this approach since I believe there are some interventions that would be very ineffective to fund and others that would be extraordinarily cost-effective.
One implication of this is how I will measure tractability and neglectedness: to estimate neglectedness I will probably use the arguments OpenPhilanthropy’s made on the topic but with an important addition: it would be informational to list the organisations working on facets of aging that are the least further along in the pipeline that goes from in vitro research to clinical application. We can probably start from the lifespan.io’s Rejuvenation Roadmap to build a list of this kind. For evaluating tractability there will be probably some scientific arguments to make.
At the end I will also analyse specific non-profits and interview some people.
In case you want to take a glance on what I’m currently writing, I gave you access to my current drafts (which are not polished at all, but may give you an idea of how I’m proceeding): this, this and this.
P.s: Nine months ago I also made this estimate of the expected cost per life saved of the TAME trial. It’s not great, but it may be of interest. It was made before I begun thinking about the framework.
Edit: Are you planning on doing other cost-effectiveness estimates on this topic? Should we unite forces?
I might do more cost-effectiveness estimates, but it’s not a top priority—I’m currently running the Longevity Research Institute, a nonprofit devoted to experimentally testing anti-aging interventions, and I have a lot of object-level work to do there. Definitely happy to consult, make intros, and share my own existing notes whenever you have questions.
Yes, my estimates are a large underestimate of the potential benefit of life-extending therapies if you assume that they extend life at all, rather than just delay the onset of disease-related disability. I wanted to indicate that the impact is large even with rather pessimistic assumptions.