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Ask HN: What should we fund at YC Research?

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Re: Ask HN: What should we fund at YC Research?

#221

Post by nicky0 »

JoshTriplett wrote: post #189
derrida wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Humans need more lifespan, badly. Do we? Or do we need more realistic perspective about death? Why quantity over quality? Seems there's a lot of quality improvements that could be made [1]. For instance, I read recently (can't recall source) that San Fransisco's homeless is the least happy in the world. Also that the top 1% in the world make over $35K a year, but there are far happier people than exist in middle Am…

> Or do we need more realistic perspective about death? We do: we need to realize how horrible it is that we treat it so casually, rather than as a tragedy. Perhaps then we'll do something about it. > [1] Notice that cancer, heart-disease, Alzheimer, etc research also falls into this category - allowing people to live with less suffering. All three of which (especially the first and last) have heavy ties to aging. It…

Interesting. Would you do it for animals too? It would suck to live for 400 years but your dog dies in only 10.

How would people remember everything? How would you spend all that time? What would everyone do?

Is this just for rich people or do poor people get to live for centuries too?

Haven't done the math but if 8 billion people lived for say 500 years each, plus new arrivals constantly, wouldn't we accumulate rather?

What about fertility? Should there be a window on that?

Re: Ask HN: What should we fund at YC Research?

#222

Post by nathan_f77 »

derrida wrote: post #164
mietek wrote: post #129

http://sens.org/ . Humans need more lifespan, badly. I’d have said AI safety, but it’s already on your list. Excellent. I’d also have said basic income. Good to know you’re on it. Meta-research. Academic publishing is obsolete, and knowledge should not be paywalled. How many researchers already make use of https://www.reddit.com/r/scholar or http://sci-hub.io/ ? Bacteriophages. Antibiotics are running out, while phag…

> Humans need more lifespan, badly. Do we? Or do we need more realistic perspective about death? Why quantity over quality? Seems there's a lot of quality improvements that could be made [1]. For instance, I read recently (can't recall source) that San Fransisco's homeless is the least happy in the world. Also that the top 1% in the world make over $35K a year, but there are far happier people than exist in middle Am…

> Humans need more lifespan, badly.

> Do we?

Yes, we do. Categorically. If you would prefer to die, then speak for yourself.

And of course, no one wants a longer life if they're miserable. We need to solve poverty as well.

Re: Ask HN: What should we fund at YC Research?

#223

Post by JoshTriplett »

dineshp2 wrote: post #152

Education. Everyone knows it's broken,not effective anymore and literally a waste of time and money. More so if you had the oppurtunity to experience what education means in third world countries.Spoiler alert : it's a joke that will make you cry. It needs to be fixed as quickly as possible and research needs to be done for alternatives to help people in the process of learning.Online education is a good start, but w…

What about a serious attempt at an apprenticeship model, similar to the one used in Europe for students who don't go to "university"?

Re: Ask HN: What should we fund at YC Research?

#224

Post by sandGorgon »

peteretep wrote: post #209
sandGorgon wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agree on this. Especially research on Soylent like nutrition products for third world countries. Or the cheapest way to build muscle. Or a Crossfit alternative that's free and does not need equipment.

CrossFit is already free - they've been posting the WOD on their blog for free since forever. You could just take their body weight exercises and pick one randomly every day and you'd be doing CrossFit.

hence the research. Yes - I have been following people like Layne Norton, Lyle Macdonald, etc. for years. And Crossfit has a huge number of critics for its program. It would be see results of research on a safer, better program/diet.

Re: Ask HN: What should we fund at YC Research?

#225

Post by derrida »

JoshTriplett wrote: post #210
empressplay wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can live for a thousand years and you will still procrastinate and you will still not want to die. An extended lifespan won't help those issues. You need to get over them whether you live 50 years or 500.

> You can live for a thousand years and you will still procrastinate and you will still not want to die. Of course not! Why should you ever want to die? Why should you ever "get over" that? It's a bug. We haven't fixed it yet. It should not be romanticized, and it should most certainly not be treated as inevitable. It's an abomination we have yet to eliminate.

> it should most certainly not be treated as inevitable.

What life never dies?

What non-living thing does not change?

Re: Ask HN: What should we fund at YC Research?

#226

Post by aperrien »

How about checking into the use of optogenetics to build a universal, minimally invasive neural interface? We have optogenetic treatments that make nerve cells responsive to and emissive of light. Can we treat nerve cells to transmit and receive light over a fiber optics, letting us bridge gaps in existing neural paths? something like that night go a long way to healing all sorts of neural degenerative disease, and possibly deal with paralysis as well.

Perhaps eventually something along the lines of plug and play hardware for humans, if you can come up with some sort of universal spec for it.

Re: Ask HN: What should we fund at YC Research?

#227

Post by enraged_camel »

nathan_f77 wrote: post #222
derrida wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Humans need more lifespan, badly. Do we? Or do we need more realistic perspective about death? Why quantity over quality? Seems there's a lot of quality improvements that could be made [1]. For instance, I read recently (can't recall source) that San Fransisco's homeless is the least happy in the world. Also that the top 1% in the world make over $35K a year, but there are far happier people than exist in middle Am…

> Humans need more lifespan, badly. > Do we? Yes, we do. Categorically. If you would prefer to die, then speak for yourself. And of course, no one wants a longer life if they're miserable. We need to solve poverty as well.

Well, I think his issue was with the word "need".

Wanting more lifespan is a different thing. The claim that most people want to live longer is not as controversial as the claim that most people need to live longer.

Re: Ask HN: What should we fund at YC Research?

#228

Post by ilaksh »

xemdetia wrote: post #48

Education: Vocational retraining effectiveness for work for 45+ people. I am not one of them, but there seems to be more and more left behind with no strategy/known good answer. I personally can't figure out how to teach and elevate people to do good work so it tends to be they end up being a long term on social security/unemployment/draining savings. So the question would be: - What are the most effective ways to re…

I'm going to be 45 in a few years. Your ageism is a big problem.

The thing is, as artificial general intelligence advances, everyone is going to be left behind. Give it 4-6 decades. Anyone essentially Human 1.0 at that point will be irrelevant.

But a few decades out, you can count on your OWN skills to become outdated, and regardless of whether you are a motivated learner or faster learner, it will quickly become very difficult for anyone to keep up. Even the young.

Re: Ask HN: What should we fund at YC Research?

#229

Post by aperrien »

losvedir wrote: post #128

Low cost, high density housing that's safe, clean, and comfortable. I think this goes hand in hand with the basic income research: what good is a basic income if any decent housing is more expensive than the income? (Alternatively: how do we fund basic income when the basic cost of living is so high?) I think there's a lot of ways housing could be made cheaper via building materials and techniques, architecture, tech…

I believe that Ikea had a model home that they were building that was a practical minimal shelter. Perhaps there are ways to extend that?

Also, I remember that there were a few companies in China and Australia that were experimenting with 3d printing of concrete homes. Perhaps that could use a little help as well?

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