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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

#71
post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He still needs money to fund, for example, his cryogenic payments. He wears that little metal bracelet everywhere he goes (I got to a lot of conferences), I can't imagine the service is cheap.

I read that you set it up so that the cryo people get your life insurance.

This is accurate. The absolute cheapest option is around $35k plus an annual membership fee (or a one-time few-k fee I believe). The more premium (but head-only) option is $80k plus annual membership fee. (A bit more if you opt for a standby team.) A life insurance policy that covers these amounts does not cost very much.

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

#72

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…

Count me in. I dont need money, I need datasets and biologists, I can provide the engineering, data science and computing capacity. Biologists contact me!

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

#73
post #47
post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know you're making a joke, but a lot of people say this and it always irks me slightly. This narrative that if rich people fund X universally desirable thing, then only rich people will have X. This is literally never the case in the history of technology. Yes, the rich get it first, but it filters down to poor people really really quickly, especially in the modern age where costs fall at an insane pace. Sorry, did…

In technology, sure. In somewhat less easy to define things, not so much. Rich people tend to have better education, better health care, less worries and stress (or at least less existential worries and better coping mechanisms), and better "life opportunities" as far as anything that requires money is concerned. Poor people can't work in industries where unpaid internships are commonplace for example, because they n…

Yes, rich people always have better things. Technology and healthcare are no exception.

I'm not saying that the poor will ever equal the rich contemporaneously. They won't. What they will do is equal the rich of say, ten years ago (perpetually moving forward). That is the nature of progress.

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

#75
post #56

I'm not a billionaire and I'm not old, but I am so excited about anti-aging. I know Hacker News is super negative, but who doesn't want to live longer?! Of all the pain points humans experience, you'd think death lies pretty high on the list. Why are people fighting this?

I sometimes talk about wanting to live forever and get weird stares. Are you joking me?? I want to hike every trail in the world. I want to climb every mountain. I want to play every video game. I want to beat the hardest raids in every expansion of WoW. I want to learn multiple langauges. I want to spend several years living in every biome. I want to learn all of the programming languages. I want to go back to schoo…

Not enough time? Perhaps, but forever is a long time. Quite possibly it's exactly our limited time that has us achieve great things. If you have all the time in the world why bother starting that business or learning that new skill today? Might as well start tomorrow ...

I also find it at least a bit disturbing that WoW is so high on that list. Then again, if you have all the time in the world ...

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

#76
post #48
post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The planet has no needs at all, and human longevity is unlikely to be a major issue when most of our human ventures center around efficient ways of killing each other.

A ,ore appropriate question would be, "Does humanity need longevity for humans?"

Unknown. There is are reasons to believe that longevity isn't necessarily a bad thing however, and many reasons to believe that it could have global value. You have to remember that in such a rosy future, we still have the oceans to colonize, and then space. Longevity would bring problems with it, but they could be solved by sensible controls on birth rates.

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

#77

I just finished a book by Nick Lane where he discussed how he believes aging is cause by mitochondrial free-radical leakage. His hypothesis (and he is a smart guy) is that science will allow people to live longer, but probably not much longer than 125. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20021368

What's the book? Would like to read it. Thanks.

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

#78
post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> real good by funding research Like the planet need humans to live longer???

Yes, because a huge part of the reason people disregard climate science today is because many of the people with the decision making authority to invest in actually correcting for it also judge they won't be alive to suffer from the consequences. Make humans live forever and suddenly everything matters. Interplanetary colonization for the preservation of the species alone is not enough, but to preserve themselves it…

That's the theory. Practically, almost all humans don't give a shit about the 5-year consequences of their actions even though they will most likely leave at least another 50 years.

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

#79
post #56

I'm not a billionaire and I'm not old, but I am so excited about anti-aging. I know Hacker News is super negative, but who doesn't want to live longer?! Of all the pain points humans experience, you'd think death lies pretty high on the list. Why are people fighting this?

It comes from reverence for naturalism. It's similar in that sense to other movements, like anti-GMO, anti-vax, etc.

Tell people you want to cure cancer and you're a hero. Tell people you want to cure age-related decline and eventually death and you're a weirdo extremist.

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

#80
post #66
post #56

I'm not a billionaire and I'm not old, but I am so excited about anti-aging. I know Hacker News is super negative, but who doesn't want to live longer?! Of all the pain points humans experience, you'd think death lies pretty high on the list. Why are people fighting this?

Not just death, but the gradual loss of physical and mental capabilities you used to have. That feels scarier to me. Imagine you could chose to die on your 75th birthday, but in return keep your full 20-something health until then. I'd do it right away.

Sure but if you've maintained your 20-something health until 75, why choose to die? That's just suicide...
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