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A $3B bet on finding the fountain of youth

economist.com

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Re: A $3B bet on finding the fountain of youth

#81

Post by [deleted] »

whatshisface wrote: post #34
aresant wrote: post #8

This 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.

[deleted]

Re: A $3B bet on finding the fountain of youth

#82

Post by 0xBABAD00C »

whatshisface wrote: post #34
aresant wrote: post #8

This 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.

People just want shiny stories and plausible deniability. It's pretty much subconscious risk management. Then you have people who play the next-level game of exploring this risk management heuristic, hence -- pretty young people with pedigree scamming the old money.

Re: A $3B bet on finding the fountain of youth

#83

Post by dcow »

paulluuk wrote: post #52
wyre wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would agree “we” don’t. Whoever “we” is. The problem is the hypothetical billionaires and politicians expanding their power with elongated lifespans. Imagine the ramifications if Supreme Court justices lived 50+ more years, for one example.

Of course, we'd have to change how many things work in the world, this specific example seems like a rather simple one to change.

How do you propose we do it?

Re: A $3B bet on finding the fountain of youth

#84

Post by kamarg »

Mandelmus wrote: post #13
woke_neoliberal wrote: post #7

There 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…

Researching immortality or unnatural longevity isn't worth the investment for a society because a society of immortals becomes either stagnant or unsustainable. But making individual billionaires immortal is something billionaires might find worth investing in.

> Researching immortality or unnatural longevity isn't worth the investment for a society because a society of immortals becomes either stagnant or unsustainable.

This is said with an awful lot of certainty for something that's never been accomplished before. Do people and systems get stuck in their ways? Absolutely. But they also change for better and for worse. There's no guarantee/proof that living forever ends in stagnation or an unsustainable culture.

Re: A $3B bet on finding the fountain of youth

#85

Post by sombremesa »

javert wrote: post #72
Jack000 wrote: post #59

Trying to fix aging for existing humans is like trying to patch a binary that's already running, it would be way easier to build new humans with better source code imo.

If you don't even have a compiler, it's easier to patch a binary that's already running than make one from scratch. That's a closer analogy to the situation under discussion.

Your mom’s a compiler.

Re: A $3B bet on finding the fountain of youth

#86

Post by Jack000 »

javert wrote: post #72
Jack000 wrote: post #59

Trying to fix aging for existing humans is like trying to patch a binary that's already running, it would be way easier to build new humans with better source code imo.

If you don't even have a compiler, it's easier to patch a binary that's already running than make one from scratch. That's a closer analogy to the situation under discussion.

There are other ways of doing this even without germline editing - you could for example train a linear transformer model that does DNA phenotype prediction, then just do regular IVF and choose the embryo with lowest predicted risk of (cancer, heart disease, etc)

The only roadblock to doing this right now is access to training data.

Re: A $3B bet on finding the fountain of youth

#87

Post by oliv__ »

aresant wrote: post #8

This 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…

The mad scientist really looks the part

Re: A $3B bet on finding the fountain of youth

#88

Post by Pigalowda »

Maybe I’m interpreting the article wrong but it looks like they’re going to try temporarily activating a handful of transcription factors (Yamanaka) through a crispr mediated gene alteration/insertion.

I suppose if you created a viral vector that injected an mRNA with a nuclear localization signal - what would you use to activate it? Include a steroid promoter (or other) and co-inject with cortisone? None of my prediction needs crispr though so i don’t think that’s what they’ll do.

They’ll also need to address cellular debris/degradation products as well as gene issues. I’m sure lipofuscin, anthracotic plaque, tau tangles, amyloid plaques, oxidative damage, non-enzymatic glycosylation, etc will all ultimately need to be addressed.

I hope they do skin first, I’m tired of looking like a wrinkle.

Re: A $3B bet on finding the fountain of youth

#89

Post by foobiekr »

Mandelmus wrote: post #6

“A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents die, and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it.” – Max Planck[1] Often paraphrased as "Science progresses one funeral at a time." I don't think we really want immortality or unnatural longevity. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planck%27s_principle

I would rather be alive and trying to work that out than dead.

Re: A $3B bet on finding the fountain of youth

#90

Post by [deleted] »

0xBABAD00C wrote: post #82
whatshisface wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are forgetting the iron law of real-life business stories: the better they seem, the worse they are.

People just want shiny stories and plausible deniability. It's pretty much subconscious risk management. Then you have people who play the next-level game of exploring this risk management heuristic, hence -- pretty young people with pedigree scamming the old money.

[deleted]
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