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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

#391

Post by lkbm »

joering2 wrote: post #165

Disclaimer: I do not hate Google; I use their search and email daily. I hate to be this guy, but... > OK so you’re probably thinking wow! That’s a lot different from what Google does today. Not really. Google is in a business of selling ads. In addition, they do make money on selling/sharing/exchanging information, mostly indirectly. > But as we explained in our first letter to shareholders, there’s tremendous potent…

I'm a shareholder. So are many of my friends.

None of my friends are homo economicus, even qua investors. As much as we love earning more money, we also care about other people. We also like when the companies we part-own aren't evil.

As for the fact that 23andme's founder and Brin are married...you do understand the marriage of two CEOs does not equal the merger of companies...especially when the CEOs don't own the companies.

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

#392

Post by tarwatirno »

To the people who are saying that this will only be for the rich: I would like to point out that we already spend over $500 billion on Medicare. In other words we already spend 10 times Google's yearly revenue, half-assedly patching up the symptoms of the disease that every single human is already afflicted with, and we do it for everyone. If they actually solve this problem, it won't go only to rich people, because of the amount of money that buying it for everyone will save everyone.

(Yes, some problems might come in if they invent something that can keep you young if you start at 30, but doesn't do anything if you start at 65, however the long term benefit would still be amazing and maybe make the Republicans' dream of getting rid of Medicare finally come true...)

To the people who say death is natural: Many, many natural things are bad (high child mortality, smallpox, etc.) and many artificial things are good (antibiotics, vaccines, the computer letting you read this comment.) Naturalistic Fallacy.

To the people who say death is good: No it's not. My parents had me when they were older. Now my dad has a kind of cancer that is associated with aging (multiple myeloma.) He was diagnosed my first year of college (luckily he has been doing rather well considering for five years now.) I get to look forward to loosing him before I turn 30. I don't care why you think death is great because of its benefit to society; I don't want to loose my dad. Also, my kids will almost certainly never know their grandfather, just like I never knew mine (He died of the same kind of cancer a few months before I was born,) which is sad. You are severely underestimating the value of not having to watch people you care about shrivel up before your eyes and be irrevocably destroyed, knowing that there is nothing you can do to stop it.

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

#393

Post by oblio »

arg01 wrote: post #223
enraged_camel wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Okay, let's attach numbers to the scenario. Assume there are 1 million people in Group A and 990 million people in Group B. By voting no, you just condemned 900,000 people in Group A to eventually die, simply because you wanted to prevent them from becoming the ruling elite. Stated differently, you had the power to prevent 900,000 deaths (and in fact many more than that, moving forward), and you chose not to because…

There have been several times in human history where the majority have decided it would be best if the 'elite' should have their lifespans shortened. Arguably with positive results.

French Revolution versus Red October, Mao's Cultural Revolution, gulags and concentration camps for every communist country. In 90% of these "elite trimmings" society is pushed back decades at least. Unruly mobs do not move the world forward.

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

#394

Post by kbenson »

_pferreir_ wrote: post #382
cookingrobot wrote: post #249

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Calico is a different company, so if some day you decide to give them access to your medical records, that won't automatically give access to google.

Yeah, then I guess they will just show you an annoying pop-up every now and then, basically pushing you to merge your Calico account into you Google account.

There are very specific laws in place in the US that make this more than unlikely, probably illegal. I sincerely doubt Google wants HIPAA to start applying to far more of their business and data.

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

#395

Post by PeterisP »

jclos wrote: post #388
anigbrowl wrote: post #233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To me the (potential) benefit is not life extension but healthier lives.

I agree. The goal should be to achieve the best compromise between quality and length. Pushing from 80 to 130 is good and all, but I would prefer the research to be focused on preserving youthfulness rather than life in and for itself, i.e. I would rather die a young 80 year old than a decrepit 130 year old walking corpse. Of course, even better would be to die a young 130 y.o., or not die at all.

Well, but that's exactly what anti-aging research is about. If you learn how to fix heart disease or cure cancer or cure Alzheimers, then anyway afterwards you are a frail, decrepit person with a couple more years to live; but if you delay or fix the actual aging issues, then it prolongs the time that you are healthy and well-functioning.

Take a look at, for example, http://youtu.be/qMAwnA5WvLc (TEDx, Aubrey de Grey) linked in another thread.

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

#396

Post by arg01 »

oblio wrote: post #393
arg01 wrote: post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There have been several times in human history where the majority have decided it would be best if the 'elite' should have their lifespans shortened. Arguably with positive results.

French Revolution versus Red October, Mao's Cultural Revolution, gulags and concentration camps for every communist country. In 90% of these "elite trimmings" society is pushed back decades at least. Unruly mobs do not move the world forward.

They may not move their country forward, that doesn't mean they don't move the world forward. Say what you will about the French revolution's effect on France but it greatly influenced the spread of democracies and republics world wise. Similarly the presence of socialism(in the production owned by the people sense) hugely encouraged improvements in working conditions in countries that feared similar upheaval and loss of property.

But I wouldn't argue with you that the majority of these 'elite trimmings' set the society back. The question is after the set back does it move forward faster than it was or in a better direction (Often the answer to this would be hugely reliant on your personal values).

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

#397

Post by Lost_BiomedE »

tassl wrote: post #343
Lost_BiomedE wrote: post #331

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the current environment, if you already have an engineering undergrad, an MBA would do you best. I am not a fan of the programs, but the degree will open doors that are mostly shut for pure engineers. In many areas and locals, not necessarily Silicon Valley, a pure engineering man is seen as a lackey. An engineer with business cred is considered valuable, just my experience.

Thanks for your answer! I guess I would have to be more precise :) My intent is to have a technical role in the space, not a management one. I can imagine how most of the problems facing require machine learning and statistics, so I am more interested on how to complement these skills to be able to transition into an space that fascinates me.

Depends. In a mid-sized company, they expect senior/VP technical lead to have something like an MBA. In a small start-up, founders are generally required to be able to navigate both sides a bit. I would really consider it.

You can learn what you want on the technical side outside of college. Now, if you want to be in a research institution or academia, you don't need the MBA, but then there is the whole can of worms of how to gain influence enough to do the research you want.

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

#398

Post by jrockway »

Eliezer wrote: post #325
jrockway wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I recommend not taking an English lit class, and instead going to your local library and borrowing some well-worn books on how to write by actual authors. And not literary authors either.

Though I doubt anyone is going to call you bad at writing if your press releases start sounding like Hemingway and Shakespeare.

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

#399

Post by jferguson »

staccatomeasure wrote: post #77
jerf wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You mean, that there might be a war between the 150 year olds and the 250 year olds? Sign me up! I don't even care for which side! The base state of the world that we live in is that everybody dies . Your hypotheticals about how horrible it might be to live in a world where people might not die have to be pretty horrible to compete with what is already true . (Mind you, this is not an unleapable bar, in my opinion, b…

Dying isn't horrible at all. It's a part of the lifecycle.

http://slatestarcodex.com/2013/07/17/who-by-very-slow-decay/

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

#400

Post by lcedp »

bowlofpetunias wrote: post #96

Most of the world suffers from the health problem of never even reaching a ripe old age, and much of the rest from the problem of not being able to afford it, and increasingly so. This is not about making the world a better place. This about allowing the elite that can afford it to live forever.

> This is not about making the world a better place. This about allowing the elite that can afford it to live forever.

You're probably right. But any advantages in medicine eventually will boost available level of tools to all. Well it worked as this so far. Elite is just able to get the best much earlier - but that doesn't mean we should stop all scientific progress and reset to the level of medicine everybody can get.

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