Editing Life extension (section)

===Fooling genes===
In ''[[The Selfish Gene]]'', [[Richard Dawkins]] describes an approach to life-extension that involves "fooling genes" into thinking the body is young.<ref>{{Cite book | vauthors = Dawkins R |author-link=Richard Dawkins |title=The Selfish Gene |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |orig-year=1976|year=2006 |location=[[New York City|New York]] |isbn= 978-0-19-929115-1 | pages = 41–42|title-link=The Selfish Gene }}</ref> Dawkins attributes inspiration for this idea to [[Peter Medawar]]. The basic idea is that our bodies are composed of genes that activate throughout our lifetimes, some when we are young and others when we are older. Presumably, these genes are activated by environmental factors, and the changes caused by these genes activating can be lethal. It is a statistical certainty that we possess more lethal genes that activate in later life than in early life. Therefore, to extend life, we should be able to prevent these genes from switching on, and we should be able to do so by "identifying changes in the internal chemical environment of a body that take place during aging... and by simulating the superficial chemical properties of a young body".<ref>{{Cite book | vauthors = Dawkins R |author-link=Richard Dawkins |title=The Selfish Gene |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |orig-year=1976|year=2006 |location=[[New York City|New York]] |isbn= 978-0-19-929115-1 | page = 42|title-link=The Selfish Gene }}</ref>