Astral Codex Ten

Algernon’s Law

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Algernon’s Law

Article

Algernon’s Law is a recurring concept in the Astral Codex Ten archive, appearing 2 times across 2 issues between November 24, 2021 and December 02, 2021. The archive places it in contexts such as “But as a corollary of Algernon’s Law (your body is already mostly optimal, so adding more things is unlikely to have large positive effects unless there’s some really good reason)”; “Algernon’s Law says there shouldn’t be easy gains in biology”. It most often appears alongside Alexandre Gueniot, Alexandros Marinos, Alzheimers.

Metadata

  • Category: Concepts
  • Mention count: 2
  • Issue count: 2
  • First seen: November 24, 2021
  • Last seen: December 02, 2021

Appears In

Source Context

Recovered passages from the original issue text. When the raw archive preserved outbound links inside the source passage, they are listed directly under the quote.

Pascalian Medicine
November 24, 2021 · Original source
What about unknown unknowns? This is a two-way street: these chemicals might have unexpected risks, but also unexpected benefits. Vitamin D can contribute to kidney stones in vulnerable individuals, but it also helps bone health, and there are various (probably false) claims that it prevents cancer, helps depression, etc. But as a corollary of Algernon’s Law (your body is already mostly optimal, so adding more things is unlikely to have large positive effects unless there’s some really good reason), probably we’re more likely to discover unexpected risks than unexpected benefits.
Inline links: Algernon’s Law
Book Review: Lifespan
December 02, 2021 · Original source
And people who are not David Sinclair are less enthusiastic about sirtuins, mTOR, and calorie restriction. Algernon’s Law says there shouldn’t be easy gains in biology. Your body is the product of millions of years of evolution - it would be weird if some drug could make you stronger, faster, and smarter. Why didn’t the body just evolve to secrete that drug itself? Or more to the point, since most drugs act by flipping biological “switches”, why does your body have a switch set to the “be weak, slow, and dumb” position? There are ways to answer this question, and drugs that do lots of great things. But any biohacking proposal does need to overcome this objection. So: why doesn’t the body just have more sirtuins? Why do sirtuins only repair epigenetic damage when mTOR is in the off position?
Inline links: Algernon’s Law