Okay, but what do we do when there is 30 or 40 billion of us?
The economic value of targeting aging
131–140 of 162 posts
Re: The economic value of targeting aging
#132This article seems to be about the economic value gained by reduced health care or something. If you actually extended lifespans by a significant margin (say to 200 years) there would be other knock on effects that would completely derail the global economy & markets. This study doesn't seem to think about how those things could actually negatively impact economics. Eventually if you're intelligent and you're trying…
mothers used to have kids at age 15 and only lived to their 40s - now folks have kids in their late 20s and live to their 80s
Re: The economic value of targeting aging
#133Earlier quoted context omitted.
> recommendations and guidelines we should lose weight and get more exercise We also don't understand it, not well at least. You can't go to Walgreens, get a shot and be cured of obesity.
What part of obesity is not well understood? Societies with easy access to calories and sugar/carbs/sat fats and reduction in movement and increase in sitting have more obesity, right?
It would be a great experiment to ramp up sugar taxes on certain parts of the country and see weight change over the decades.
Re: The economic value of targeting aging
#134Glad they draw attention to the difference between “healthy years” and “just more years”. From our work at GoGo (GoGoGrandparent.com) our clients specifically value more time in the community they grew old in. As you age the trip to church every Sunday becomes what you live for, and taking that away so you can live more years in a retrofitted apartment building isn’t worth it to a lot of people.
Re: The economic value of targeting aging
#135There are a lot of DIYers experimenting with senolytics and Rapamycin therapies for longevity. I expect that in the next 10 years or so evidence will be clear that at least some of these therapies work. It will be undeniable as more and more people start to hit their 80s, 90s, and beyond in very good health. I'm in my 30s so not in need yet but I'm keeping a close eye on the science. For example, this clinical trial…
They're not DIYers when using a prescription drug. Something inaccessible to the majority of the population. Can't wait for a time when trying to delay your death requires serious justification and approval from some asshole whose only authority comes from 5+ years of overpriced formal education.
Sortof. But the assholes do know a bit about science, and are taking an arguably conservative view on pharmacological interventions in the treatment of aging to prevent possible problems. For example this trial:
Targeting the Biology of Aging.
Ushering a New Era of Interventions.
The official web resource of the TAME Trial, managed by the American Federation for Aging Research.
they are not saying that taking metformin slows aging, merely that it delays development of chronic illnesses. What we should be asking is if metformin is actually slowing down the biological aging process. https://www.afar.org/tame-trial
Re: The economic value of targeting aging
#136Okay, but what do we do when there is 30 or 40 billion of us?
Invest in space travel and colonization.
Re: The economic value of targeting aging
#137Earlier quoted context omitted.
If anyone actually comes up with an empirically verified treatment for aging (let alone a "cure"), market access or payment is not a problem they will face.
David Sinclair is an expert on this and has said otherwise. Clinical trials are expensive. To fund them you need billions of dollars. Pharmas won’t fund research in anti-aging directly because it’s not considered a disease, can’t get FDA approval, and thus couldn’t be sold. So, yes, you need to find another route to approval, similar to metformin and rapamycin.
One thing I've never understood, given that trials are so insanely expensive, is why healthcare companies with billions of dollars don't open up "offshore" research facilities to do trials in more lax jurisdictions.
I've done none of the research, just imagining, but if you were to open up a compound in Somalia or somewhere, make the appropriate political contributions, would you really be bogged down with lots of red tape? Could you just experiment and iterate fast enough to develop convincing therapies cheaply and then bring them to mature markets?
Re: The economic value of targeting aging
#138I don't expect any noticeable progress as long as medical regulations assume that people already live forever. Avoidance of risk is an absolute priority, even though under current technology level everybody is certain to die. Collective insanity helped by entrenched interest of big pharma corporations.
The only way this changes is if against all odds diy biohacking scene arrives and outright breaks the law by doing human experiments. I got interested a few years ago and concluded until dna synthesis becomes cheap and more reliable for longer sequences it's a pipe dream. That would require a fundamentally new technology (enzymatic dna synthesis?) as current tech is just marginally improved 1970s tech.
Re: The economic value of targeting aging
#139Okay, but what do we do when there is 30 or 40 billion of us?
Population control.
Episode 3, Season 2, "Love, Death & Robots" covers a very similar scenario with Black Mirror-like horror...
Effectively, having "unapproved" children results in the children being executed, the parents gaoled for criminal/mental health issues.
Re: The economic value of targeting aging
#140Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sure, it's generally safe. The point I was trying make is why work extra years to pay for a single year when it's not guaranteed. I'd rather quit at 60 and die at 78 than pay $200k, quit at 64, and die at 79.
When I did construction, many conversations were about the generous retirement benefits. It was always, "When I retiree I will be able to do this, and that, in comfort." There was always the big decision of shouid I retire at 25 years (25 year old working 25 years), or get a few hundred more if I wait until 65? I knew a person who worked accounting at the union. She told me the average retire whom waits for the bigge…
Anecdotally similar happened to my step-father. He was working extra shifts, overtime etc. Died 6months before full pension. He never cashed a single check and my mom only got about 1/2 of what the full pension would have been worth (discounted value) because he passed "before retirement" .
This is part of why I'm so adamant that I think pensions and the like are scams. I want to run my portfolio and my next of kin can have every cent (less taxes)