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Google announces Calico, a new company that will focus on health and well-being

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Re: Google announces Calico, a new company that will focus on health and well-being

#191
post #9

Absolutely brilliant. Finally, Aubrey De Grey's unapologetically straightforward logic [1] regarding aging has gained traction with the crowd who has the means to tackle this grand challenge. I am sincerely proud of Page and Brin for their vision and commitment. This is one of those rare times that powerful people make bold choices that catalyze a shift in the world's thought paradigm. Aging will now be seen for what…

Perhaps I missed something... where is Aubrey de Grey linked with Calico? I didn't see any mention of him in Larry's post, the press release, or the time article. Where is this coming from?

Aubrey's reaction piece is listed on the front page of Time's website, and can be seen here: http://ideas.time.com/2013/09/18/finally-the-war-on-aging-ha...

Re: Google announces Calico, a new company that will focus on health and well-being

#192
post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Personally I hope that Google is humble enough to morph cross-platform mindshare in addition to growing killer channels and facilitating bleeding-edge infrastructures. This approach will surely recontextualize best-of-breed vortals, implement world-class research and innovate value-added technologies by embracing impactful infomediaries. Imagine how much longer we'd live if we leveraged sticky e-services, brand user-…

Your snark is unnecessary and very misplaced. This will result in a significant thought paradigm shift in all things health-related, and it's a great thing that a company with as many resources and as high of a profile as Google is looking into this. Google is a company that is making self-driving cars, providing incredibly fast internet to consumers, providing Internet to suffering areas with a new idea (the Loon),…

He's making fun of the buzzwords, not the message itself. Frankly, if you think "catalyzing paradigms" is a good way to say something, I'd recommend taking an English literature class.

Re: Google announces Calico, a new company that will focus on health and well-being

#193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Landing on the moon in 1969 rewrote a lot too. I bet if you asked people back then what the future would be like, the space program would look a little different. All we're doing today is announcing a moon shot.

A great problem is the current mindset. Many, many people think of life extension as undesirable . It's mind-boggling at first sight, but then you understand it for what it is: the Stockholm Syndrome, with Death as the hostage-taker, and all the life-extension-deniers as the hostages. We need to get out of that hole first. Google is doing the right thing.

Thinking that death is a problem or 'a bad thing that happens' is incredibly short-sighted. Improving the well-being of humanity in general is a great goal; life extension can be a different topic entirely.

Re: Google announces Calico, a new company that will focus on health and well-being

#194
post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

catalyze a shift in the world's thought paradigm Absolutely. The goal should be to enact a vector of a new paradigm, as proactive team players synergize an out-of-the-box strategy of functionality and infotainment, re-engineering the learning curve framework of your dotted-line relationship.

Let's take that offline.

I've added an action item to our sync up.

Re: Google announces Calico, a new company that will focus on health and well-being

#195
post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Indeed, what's the cost going to be for once someone finds a "cure" for cancer? Society should offer a bounty for such a thing, and then scientists / researchers are incentivized more towards the problem, and will be rewarded - as well as their research supporters - if successful.

Yes I agree, and the patrons of those ventures, perhaps all of society, could reap rewards in ways that go beyond a stock portfolio. It's funny that in the press release they mention "moonshot", because that's what we need. All of society puts in and all of society benefits. With measures and controls it could work, just like the moonshot did.

Yup. I imagine you'd be welcome and invited to stay for free, housing included, to many places around the world - if not everywhere. I do think in the future most everyone will have the ability, the benefit to travel anywhere in the world - as an incentive and reward for good behaviour; If you do criminal activity/counter-productive behaviours towards society or individuals, you lose that, etc..

Re: Google announces Calico, a new company that will focus on health and well-being

#196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your logic can be dismissed as nonsense with a very easy thought experiment. Imagine you have two groups of people: Group A and Group B. You are voting on a technology that can prevent 90% of deaths in Group A. Do you vote yes or no? If you vote no, congratulations, you just condemned a large group of people to continue dying for the sake of egalitarianism. (The reason this thought experiment is powerful is that it s…

If Group B is 99x the size of Group A, then I vote no.

In his example, he did not suggest that there were any downsides to voting yes. What was your basis for voting no?

Re: Google announces Calico, a new company that will focus on health and well-being

#197
post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But what about generation warfare? Imagine having to live in a world where all the positions of power are permanently occupied by people from the generation of your great-grandparents.

Generational warfare would definitely be something to consider. Imagine if immortality had been discovered 400 years ago. Are the ethics and morality of the leaders from 400 years ago something you, a person born in the late 20th century, would want to live under? Generations eventually dying off keeps the human race moving forward in many ways.

Imagine if we grew up in a world like the one you posit, where humanity advances only slowly because it's held back by the ideals held by people 400 years old.

You propose that the best solution to this is kill everyone over 80.

That would make you a psychopath.

Re: Google announces Calico, a new company that will focus on health and well-being

#198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Healthcare is based on science, and science requires data processing to see the correlations. We'd probably be able to spot a lot more common causes of diseases if people weren't so guarded with their medical history. This doesn't really have anything to do with government, it has to do with solving problems. The US already has HIPAA, so I don't get the point. This just seems like a weak attempt to say something nega…

Medical history is a double-edged sword in the US. Why do you think people are so reluctant to share it when they are being judged, charged more, charged less, etc. depending on it? If this weren't the case, some Americans wouldn't have a problem with 'divulging' their medical history. Health care is based on science, you're right, but there are factors that influence what is researched and where funds go. Plus, putt…

Well, the way to solve the charging issue is to have universal healthcare for all in which no one can be denied care. Given that, I don't see why I should care why anyone know my cholesterol or blood pressure.

And where is Google advocating for cuts in public science spending, or lobbying to get regulations reduced on harm-causing environmental agents? This is a non-sequitur with respect to Calico.

Part of big data is transparency, removing ignorance. We overspend on healthcare and treatments that don't work, precisely because we haven't crunched the numbers and informed the public and based policies based those insights. Obamacare took a lot a flack over this ("death panels!!"), but if you want to talk about optimizing health, then using computer science to evaluate medical data to target spending at stuff that works and extends life and well-being the most is a huge win.

Standing in the way of that is conspiracy nuts who obsess over the privacy of their vital fluids and that somehow, scientists recommending that your favorite treatment is nothing more than a very expensive placebo is a death panel.

In a perfect world, no one could be denied healthcare, and everyone's medical records (anonymized) and history would be open to all scientists in the world for exploring the connections between disease.

I'd certainly like to know that 10,000 other people, who have the same gene X as me, who also developed symptom Y after behavior Z, and that scientists could also make that connection and begin to figure out how to target treatments, rather than counting on some hope that some study will get the right participants with the right set of histories to figure this out.

Re: Google announces Calico, a new company that will focus on health and well-being

#199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If Group B is 99x the size of Group A, then I vote no.

In his example, he did not suggest that there were any downsides to voting yes. What was your basis for voting no?

Simple: indefinite lifespan for the members of tiny minority Group A will turn them into a ruling elite even if they're not one already. You can't separate the issue of lifespan from social hierarchy.

Re: Google announces Calico, a new company that will focus on health and well-being

#200
post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Personally I hope that Google is humble enough to morph cross-platform mindshare in addition to growing killer channels and facilitating bleeding-edge infrastructures. This approach will surely recontextualize best-of-breed vortals, implement world-class research and innovate value-added technologies by embracing impactful infomediaries. Imagine how much longer we'd live if we leveraged sticky e-services, brand user-…

Your snark is unnecessary and very misplaced. This will result in a significant thought paradigm shift in all things health-related, and it's a great thing that a company with as many resources and as high of a profile as Google is looking into this. Google is a company that is making self-driving cars, providing incredibly fast internet to consumers, providing Internet to suffering areas with a new idea (the Loon),…

what Jrockway said https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6407580

But your comments are factually wrong. None of Google's products you mention are new or really that much better (so far.)

>> Google is a company that is making self-driving cars

So is every major car manufacturer out there. Who's ahead of the game? I don't know because Google gets all the press and fawning from fanboys--like you.

">>providing incredibly fast internet to consumers

Experimenting in a few ares with plenty of subsidies doesn't count. The much hated Verizon has done a LOT more on that regard http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verizon_FiOS

">> providing Internet to suffering area with a patently new idea (the Loon)"

Not providing anything yet, just experiments and Loon is not a new idea at all. http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB120347353988378955.ht...

">> exploring definitively new ideas for hardware (Google Glass)" Not a new idea at all. Different thinking of course but the verdict is still out.

One day--the focused like a laser--Google will manufacture their toilet paper and you'll be here to wonder how we managed without toilet paper before Google invented it.

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