Title:Cybernetic Principles of Aging and Rejuvenation: The Buffering- Challenging Strategy for Life Extension
Volume: 7
Issue: 1
Author(s): Francis Heylighen
Affiliation:
Keywords:
Aging, cybernetics, challenges, hormesis, life extension, order from noise, regulation, requisite variety.
Abstract: Aging is analyzed as the spontaneous loss of adaptivity and increase in fragility that characterizes dynamic systems.
Cybernetics defines the general regulatory mechanisms that a system can use to prevent or repair the damage produced
by disturbances. According to the law of requisite variety, disturbances can be held in check by maximizing buffering
capacity, range of compensatory actions, and knowledge about which action to apply to which disturbance. This suggests
a general strategy for rejuvenating the organism by increasing its capabilities of adaptation. Buffering can be optimized
by providing sufficient rest together with plenty of nutrients: amino acids, antioxidants, methyl donors, vitamins,
minerals, etc. Knowledge and the range of action can be extended by subjecting the organism to an as large as possible variety
of challenges. These challenges are ideally brief so as not to deplete resources and produce irreversible damage.
However, they should be sufficiently intense and unpredictable to induce an overshoot in the mobilization of resources for
damage repair, and to stimulate the organism to build stronger capabilities for tackling future challenges. This allows them
to override the trade-offs and limitations that evolution has built into the organism’s repair processes in order to conserve
potentially scarce resources. Such acute, “hormetic” stressors strengthen the organism in part via the “order from noise”
mechanism that destroys dysfunctional structures by subjecting them to strong, random variations. They include heat and
cold, physical exertion, exposure, stretching, vibration, fasting, food toxins, micro-organisms, environmental enrichment
and psychological challenges. The proposed buffering-challenging strategy may be able to extend life indefinitely, by
forcing a periodic rebuilding and extension of capabilities, while using the Internet as an endless source of new knowledge
about how to deal with disturbances.
