it's good to see billionaires putting money into health moonshots (vs real moonshots). Helps so many more people.
TBH, the research produced from unrelated moonshots help out in many different areas.
A $3B bet on finding the fountain of youth
31–40 of 214 posts
Re: A $3B bet on finding the fountain of youth
#32Looking at it from an engineering perspective it's a pretty dumb problem to go after. Coming mostly from my experience with minification of electronics.
E.g. the problems you get at 150nm are almost the same you'd get at 140nm or close but going down to 22nm is a whole different story. The effects that you could skim over before begin to matter in a critical way forming a sort of butterfly effect of ridiculous complexity.
So I think they'll be able to push it to let's say 120 years. Then after that something that you did 110 years ago, e.g. jumping too much in the bed will be the thing that leads you to develop a certain condition in your 120s. This is of course cascading so your related conditions contribute too even if you've dealt with them. Also we're not talking electronics here, but the human body so the baseline complexity is much much higher. And we're not even counting in *meaningful life* years.
AND with that being said I wouldn't take the economist way too seriously. They have had all sorts of Chicken Little style articles before so who knows what they are actually after.
Re: A $3B bet on finding the fountain of youth
#33If we'd all just cleaned up diets and got in shape, Covid wouldn't have been such a big deal. You can do lots, such as diet and exercise, to live better and longer, but nobody does. We want a magic pill.
To live a few years longer, at most, and you might still get unlucky.
There is no magic. Our bodies are machines, and one day we’ll figure out how to repair them. That day might not be today, but I will never object to anyone working to bring it closer.
Re: A $3B bet on finding the fountain of youth
#34This all feels like the Ocean's 11 version of biotech The straight laced CEO as foil with an amazing reputation and a ticking biological clock (1) The mad scientist known for mixing human and monkey embryos (2) The beautiful and brilliant husband & wife whiz kid team (3) All funded by the secretive Russian billionaire with questionable fortune originations (4) Grabbing the popcorn (1) https://altoslabs.com/team/execu…
You are forgetting the iron law of real-life business stories: the better they seem, the worse they are.
Re: A $3B bet on finding the fountain of youth
#35There have been several companies formed in the past few years whose premise is researching in industry anti-aging or basic science more generally (Calico, Altos Labs, Arcadia, etc.)... Does anyone understand the underlying economics or motivations? They can't be gambles when they raise $B's, and I'm too cynical to believe these are altruistic endeavors. Certainly there is research that cannot be reasonably expected…
If this research can reduce the enormous cost of old age frailty, even if not extending life by much, the payoffs are there.
Re: A $3B bet on finding the fountain of youth
#36instead of dreaming of immortality, get off this dumb ass site and do something meaningful with your waning youth! and who wants to live forever in this hellscape anyways? just more of the same hollow experience.
Nah, I'm vibing.
Re: A $3B bet on finding the fountain of youth
#37I love this. People are starting to realize how powerful the logic of life extension is. Think about this: if this startup succeeds only at extending human life expectancy by a single day, it's already worth it. A life is about 3e4 days, and there are 9e9 humans, so giving 1 extra day to every human is the equivalent of saving 3e5 lives.
Re: A $3B bet on finding the fountain of youth
#38There's nothing Silicon Valley billionaires will throw money at faster than the ability to live longer/forever. Makes sense in a way, but pretty much everyone in the field will tell you that the science is simply not there yet. Calico is similarly funded and has been at it for a decade now, with nothing to show for it.
Pretty simple. Fixing all of our diseases is actually low hanging fruit. Head transplants onto monoclonal human bodies grown in a lab. Gestated in chimeric pigs, genetically or surgically decephalized before birth, electronically innervated and artificially sustained until use in science or medicine. Bodies are O-, HLA neutral, and do not require immunosuppressants. Transplant beneficiaries receive a new and healthy…
the neural reattachment seems really hard. Where are we on spinal cord recovery after a complete sever? If you are an oligarch and don't mind murdering a healthy young type o- isn't that really the only barrier?
Re: A $3B bet on finding the fountain of youth
#39This all feels like the Ocean's 11 version of biotech The straight laced CEO as foil with an amazing reputation and a ticking biological clock (1) The mad scientist known for mixing human and monkey embryos (2) The beautiful and brilliant husband & wife whiz kid team (3) All funded by the secretive Russian billionaire with questionable fortune originations (4) Grabbing the popcorn (1) https://altoslabs.com/team/execu…
You are forgetting the iron law of real-life business stories: the better they seem, the worse they are.
>the better they seem, the worse they are
Is this common knowledge? I've seen it empirically but I don't know how much is that a widespread feeling. (Not being snark or sarcastic).
Re: A $3B bet on finding the fountain of youth
#40There's nothing Silicon Valley billionaires will throw money at faster than the ability to live longer/forever. Makes sense in a way, but pretty much everyone in the field will tell you that the science is simply not there yet. Calico is similarly funded and has been at it for a decade now, with nothing to show for it.
> the science is simply not there yet
How do you suppose it gets there?