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Why I’m Digging Deep Into Alzheimer’s

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Re: Why I’m Digging Deep Into Alzheimer’s

#21

Post by ahussain »

Filligree wrote: post #15
ggambetta wrote: post #6

Cynical answer: "because I'm getting old" :) Whatever the reason, this has the potential of being life-changing for a lot of people. Would love to see more billionaires involved with this kind of initiative.

The reason doesn't really matter, this is still incredibly valuable work. Death is terrible, and should be eradicated, but Alzheimer's is a few steps above that. There's nothing worse than seeing a loved one be slowly destroyed by that horrific disease, and I'm so glad there are people willing to work on it.

It's not common to share poems on HN, but this is a great spoken word piece about how terrible dementia and alzheimer's can be for families: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5HRBib3hNs

Re: Why I’m Digging Deep Into Alzheimer’s

#22

Post by taf2 »

bflesch wrote: post #20

It's great to see more investment into this disease. When my grandma fought Alzheimer's over the span of a decade it was very striking to see that the effect of a lack of hydration and the disease itself kind of overlapped. When she had a particularly bad day we used to give her a saline IV and you could immediately notice how she cleared up and regained her brain powers after each IV. I'm not up to date on current r…

I think the toilet in general could use an upgrade... for how many years have they been built exactly the same way? Has anyone ever done a study of the flow as urine impacts the toilet and bounces back? Or as we learn more about the importance of stomach bacteria, can our toilet start to do more monitoring of the bacteria in our stomach? Love your idea of hydration monitoring and think the application is probably more far reaching than just Alzheimer’s

Re: Why I’m Digging Deep Into Alzheimer’s

#24

Post by freeflight »

sheepdestroyer wrote: post #18
pmelendez wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Death is terrible, and should be eradicated" We are sensitive to death but it is the only mechanism I know that would control overconsumption of natural resources. If nobody dies, then we would deplete the resources in a few decades.

We have death and at the same time over-consumption, so the control is not working that well. Did you mean that it would effectively control the over-consumption if better implemented (with a higher rate)?

Parent merely stated that we are already over-consuming with rather high death rates, not having any deaths at all most certainly wouldn't help with our current unsustainable ways, as we'd most likely overpopulate the planet pretty quickly with all it's resulting woes (even more pollution, killing off the rest of the biosphere).

Imho it'd only work the other way around: For us to beat death, we first have to solve our sustainability/resource problems. What point is there to "endlessly living" if the reality of that boils down to being stuck in overcrowded and miserable living conditions? That sounds more like hell than utopia.

Re: Why I’m Digging Deep Into Alzheimer’s

#25

Post by projectramo »

ggambetta wrote: post #6

Cynical answer: "because I'm getting old" :) Whatever the reason, this has the potential of being life-changing for a lot of people. Would love to see more billionaires involved with this kind of initiative.

Yes, the same self interest that made him spend vast sums of money and personal time on sub Saharan Africa. He should only get credit for things that couldn’t possibly help him personally.

Re: Why I’m Digging Deep Into Alzheimer’s

#26

Post by bflesch »

taf2 wrote: post #22
bflesch wrote: post #20

It's great to see more investment into this disease. When my grandma fought Alzheimer's over the span of a decade it was very striking to see that the effect of a lack of hydration and the disease itself kind of overlapped. When she had a particularly bad day we used to give her a saline IV and you could immediately notice how she cleared up and regained her brain powers after each IV. I'm not up to date on current r…

I think the toilet in general could use an upgrade... for how many years have they been built exactly the same way? Has anyone ever done a study of the flow as urine impacts the toilet and bounces back? Or as we learn more about the importance of stomach bacteria, can our toilet start to do more monitoring of the bacteria in our stomach? Love your idea of hydration monitoring and think the application is probably mor…

Yes, I think it makes more sense to monitor and gather data on what comes out of your body instead of monitoring what goes into it(e.g. all smartwatches/diets).

I'd like to one day have a room-sized analysis unit which screens feces/urine of all attached toilets and performs various tests on it. Analysis results could be assigned to individuals based on the DNA footprint.

It could immediately tell you that your sugar intake is too high or that you should drink more water. With this kind of immediate feedback people will be able to live healthier because they can correlate food result on their body.

Also we could do so many interesting studies..

Re: Why I’m Digging Deep Into Alzheimer’s

#27

Post by Filligree »

freeflight wrote: post #24
sheepdestroyer wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We have death and at the same time over-consumption, so the control is not working that well. Did you mean that it would effectively control the over-consumption if better implemented (with a higher rate)?

Parent merely stated that we are already over-consuming with rather high death rates, not having any deaths at all most certainly wouldn't help with our current unsustainable ways, as we'd most likely overpopulate the planet pretty quickly with all it's resulting woes (even more pollution, killing off the rest of the biosphere). Imho it'd only work the other way around: For us to beat death, we first have to solve ou…

You're making the mistake of changing one parameter, but not projecting the entire world forwards. Immortality would be impossible without massive technological improvements that certainly would have other benefits; you can pretty well assume that both molecular nanotechnology and genetic engineering will be mature by then.

In combination, those should dramatically increase the carrying capacity of the world.

Ignoring all of that, though... Don't you think it's likely that people will start caring more about the future onceb they know they'll live to see it?

Re: Why I’m Digging Deep Into Alzheimer’s

#28

Post by StudentStuff »

bflesch wrote: post #26
taf2 wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the toilet in general could use an upgrade... for how many years have they been built exactly the same way? Has anyone ever done a study of the flow as urine impacts the toilet and bounces back? Or as we learn more about the importance of stomach bacteria, can our toilet start to do more monitoring of the bacteria in our stomach? Love your idea of hydration monitoring and think the application is probably mor…

Yes, I think it makes more sense to monitor and gather data on what comes out of your body instead of monitoring what goes into it(e.g. all smartwatches/diets). I'd like to one day have a room-sized analysis unit which screens feces/urine of all attached toilets and performs various tests on it. Analysis results could be assigned to individuals based on the DNA footprint. It could immediately tell you that your sugar…

It'd be great to be able to pull glucose, hydration and more out of urine samples real time, so long as we stay away from say live telemetry to insurers or something like SmartPipe[1] it'd be enormously beneficial.

1 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJklHwoYgBQ

Re: Why I’m Digging Deep Into Alzheimer’s

#29

Post by ggambetta »

projectramo wrote: post #25
ggambetta wrote: post #6

Cynical answer: "because I'm getting old" :) Whatever the reason, this has the potential of being life-changing for a lot of people. Would love to see more billionaires involved with this kind of initiative.

Yes, the same self interest that made him spend vast sums of money and personal time on sub Saharan Africa. He should only get credit for things that couldn’t possibly help him personally.

I strongly disagree - he should get credit for all the good things he does, regardless of the reasons.

Within reason - the end doesn't justify the means.

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