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Anti-Aging Startup Raises $116M With Bezos Backing

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Re: Anti-Aging Startup Raises $116M With Bezos Backing

#11

I would love to get involved with a company like this, however I am only a software engineer with no background in the biological sciences. Is there a feasible path that does not involve going back to school for many years? I am not afraid of learning new things or doing the hard work I'd need to do, I just feel like that route would be highly inefficient. I would really like to contribute towards meaningfully extend…

In the short term, get the highest-paying software engineering job you can, and donate a meaningful part of your income to charitable organizations working on anti-aging research such as SENS. (Check if your employer matches charitable donations, as well.) Much more efficient and effective than rethinking your entire career just so you can add one person's worth of time to such an effort.

(That's not to say "don't work on the problem directly", and there are jobs in that effort for software engineers, but don't feel like you can't contribute unless you can directly work on the problem.)

I'm currently sponsoring a matching fund for new recurring supporters of SENS, starting in November: every new recurring donation gets matched for a year, up to $24k. See https://www.fightaging.org/fund-research/

Re: Anti-Aging Startup Raises $116M With Bezos Backing

#13
post #7

Oh yay, now we can look forward to immortal rich folks. And the abolition of the retirement age.

I am pretty sure the way it works is that everyone will get the immortality when it is available, but the poor folks get 1,000 years of debt.

I'd take that deal.

Re: Anti-Aging Startup Raises $116M With Bezos Backing

#14
post #3

Funny how as billionaires get older, they start backing anti-aging and life-extension initiatives.

When you look at the equation of what you do with your life it starts to become more of an imperative to work on ending aging because if that is solved it gives you an infinite or at least much longer time to work on whatever else you want. I am now also starting to get pangs to work on climate damage mitigation because it won't be fun to live in a super hot or flooded world.

Re: Anti-Aging Startup Raises $116M With Bezos Backing

#15
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am pretty sure the way it works is that everyone will get the immortality when it is available, but the poor folks get 1,000 years of debt.

I'd take that deal.

Even if we cure aging the median life expectancy might not surpass 1,000 – that is a long time to not get in a car accident, fall off a cliff, be struck by lightning, etc.

But yeah, I'd take it too.

Re: Anti-Aging Startup Raises $116M With Bezos Backing

#16
post #3

Funny how as billionaires get older, they start backing anti-aging and life-extension initiatives.

Billionaires are not immune to the terrifying realities of life and death, they're just more likely to delude themselves into thinking that like so many rules, they can beat that too. The result is, on the bright side, that sometimes they do some real good by funding research. The downside is that often they blow that money on extremely expensive snake oil.

Re: Anti-Aging Startup Raises $116M With Bezos Backing

#20
post #7

Oh yay, now we can look forward to immortal rich folks. And the abolition of the retirement age.

If some anti-aging magic bullet was discovered, the market for it would be insanely huge. Unless the technology is intrinsically complex, capital intensive, or "high-touch," it's going to rapidly decline in price with scale just like any other technology.
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