Anti-Ageing vs Anti-Fragile

Shima BeigiPhD. Civil and Environmental Engineering

University of Bristol24th of May 2014

The Second Symposium Pathways to Indefinite Lifespan

Ingredients

• About my background • Complexity as a shared language • The role of engineering in shaping biology of ageing • Transcending the overview effect • Conclusion

My Background

• EIA Petrochemical Systems• Man-made systems, edge between complex and complicated BSc Environmental Engineering

• Sustainable Tourism vs Responsible Tourism • Technology can transcend culture. MSc Water and Environmental

Management

• A Generic Framework for Resilience of Complex Adaptive Systems

• Resilience as a verbPhD Civil and Environmental Engineering

• Rock climbing is a complex adaptive system• Fitness is about working with body’s innate adaptive

capacity. Rock Climber, Fitness Instructor

A Shared Language

Complexity Theory

Medical Science

Management

Control and Safety

Environmental Science

Politics

Social Science

System Engineering

Supply Chain Management

The Collaborative Nature of Ageing

What is the Role of Engineering in Altering the Biology of Ageing Process?

Nassim TalebAnti-Fragile Systems

• What is the opposite of fragility?• Evolution benefits from nonlinear exposure to stress for improving anti-

fragility at systemic level.• Man made systems tend to eliminate randomness, hence increase fragility. • We can use errors as a source of information.

Anti-Fragility vs Anti-Ageing or

Anti-Fragility = Anti-Ageing

Extremes: Life, Death and the Limits of the Human Body

A Collaborative Effort Against the Limits Set by Entropy

Health and Dis-ease Continuum • Aaron Antonovsky defines health as “the state of that system we call

human organism which manifests a given level of order”.

The Promotion of Health is Utilised by Sense of Coherence (SOC)

Less Ageing by More Resiliencing

Social-Ecological Systems are: • Open• Complex • Evolving • Self-organising • Nonlinearity • Cybernetic• Destruction as a part of growth

cycle (i.e., Forest)

“Resilience is the capacity of system to absorb shocks while undergoing change so as to still retain essentially the same structure, function, identity and feedback”.

(Walker, Holling et al. 2004)

Resiliencing Guided Self-organisation + Consciously Absorbing

Shocks

Transcending the Overview Effect

“We went up as technicians and came down as humanitarians” Edgar Mitchell

It is the Human Mind, Stupid!

• Politics

It’s the Economy

• Enlightened Leadership

It’s the Physiology• Smart Cities

It’s the People

• Resilience and Sustainable Systems

It’s the Mind

Conclusion

• Ageing is: • A systemic process• Complex • Multidimensional• Inherently collaborative

Technology Can Steer Us Towards A Smarter Ageing Process

The Emergence of A Smarter Planet?

References

Agus, D. B. (2012). The End of Illness, Free PressAntonovsky, A. (1996). "The Salutogenic model as a theory to guide health promotion." Health Promotion International 11(1): 11-18.Taleb, N. N. (2012). Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder, Random House Publishing Group.Walker, B., et al. (2004). "Resilience, adaptability and transformability in social-ecological systems." Ecology and Society 9(2).