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Ask HN: Whom do you admire most?

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Re: Ask HN: Whom do you admire most?

#101

Post by araneae »

MikeCapone wrote: post #96
MikeCapone wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Aubrey de Grey? You mean the crazy dude that tells people we're going to live forever without any evidence to support his claims? That's not what he claims. You have apparently only heard the soundbites. All the details of his proposals are in his book (check Amazon). After reading it, I happen to think that his engineering approach is brilliant compared to the traditional gerontological approach. Periodically repa…

> I saw the Ted talks. Still bullshit. Please elaborate. Why do you think it's bullshit? Why shouldn't it be possible to repair damage that accumulates in our cells? You've offered no clear arguments so far.

See below.

Re: Ask HN: Whom do you admire most?

#103

Post by araneae »

MikeCapone wrote: post #95
araneae wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The answer to your query is that I confess a blazing ignorance of EY. Basically, the only people that buy the whole load of nonsense are folks that desperately want to live forever, like my ex (who regularly makes donations to fund longevity research). Aging isn't a disease, because lifespan is something which is subject to evolutionary pressure. Our lifespans are what they are because they evolved to be that way. It…

> Basically, the only people that buy the whole load of nonsense are folks that desperately want to live forever How about people who just don't think getting sick and frail looks like fun? People who don't want to lose loved ones, who think that 100-200k people dying each day is a tragedy, and who think that we and future generations should have a choice on the matter (you can refuse any therapies that are developed…

I'm not against it, I just find his predictions to be so optimistic as to be unrealistic.

Cancer is, effectively, a form of aging, which is why it's so damn hard to cure. Fortunately, it's what happens when one cell breaks down. Most other aging happens to all your cells, all at once.

Re: Ask HN: Whom do you admire most?

#104

Post by dfranke »

araneae wrote: post #100
MikeCapone wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Aging isn't a disease, because lifespan is something which is subject to evolutionary pressure. Our lifespans are what they are because they evolved to be that way. That's incorrect. Our genes don't care if they carry on by reproduction or by living longer in a single individual, but we care. How a body ages after reproductive age is in an evolutionary blind spot. Individuals with mutations that promote longer life…

It's true that individuals that live a little bit longer but have the same end of their reproductive period do no better in the gene pool. However, if it were advantageous to live longer, and those folks had a slightly longer reproductive period, then we would expect the lifespan-while-fertile to increase. Presumably this would also increase the overall lifespan as well, but really that's irrelevant to this discussio…

Through your own argument, you've conceded that aging happens when the body doesn't invest enough resources in controlling damge, and that the amount of investment made can vary widely between species and even within a species. So then what in the world leads you to believe that, provided with appropriate medical support, the body can't be made to invest far more?

Re: Ask HN: Whom do you admire most?

#105

Post by r11t »

yesimahuman wrote: post #37

John Carmack. I think I've just always been an Id fan since I grew up with Quake, and I was just blown away the first time I read the Quake 1 source. I have just always dreamed of being a great C hacker like him. And he's doing even more amazing stuff now with Armadillo.

Carmack definitely has a place in my mind as one of the greatest hackers ever. I was kind of bummed that he did not respond to the interview request for the "Coders at Work" book. However, the "Masters of Doom" book offered a fun insight into his early hacking adventures!

Re: Ask HN: Whom do you admire most?

#106

Post by ajju »

bokonist wrote: post #88
theashworld wrote: post #68

Gandhi. For being fearless _and_ inspiring an entire country to be fearless without a single weapon in hand. Think about it, it's nothing short of a miracle.

Gandhi is not the man you think he is: http://history.eserver.org/ghandi-nobody-knows.txt

I am an ardent critic of Gandhi, and many of those criticisms of Gandhi are worth considering and outside of private discussions, rarely brought up in India.

However, for an article that criticizes Gandhi for being racist, the author has some nerve saying:

"Throughout his entire life Gandhi displayed the most spectacular inability to understand or even really take in people unlike himself--a trait which V.S. Naipaul considers specifically Hindu, and I am inclined to agree."

Edit: The article is also not without glaring inaccuracies. For example, the author claims that Gandhi supported Subhash Chandra Bose's Indian National Army. Nothing could be further from the truth. The only reason Subhash Chandra Bose even quit the Indian National Congress was because Gandhi had him kicked out because of ideological differences.

Re: Ask HN: Whom do you admire most?

#109

Post by dfranke »

araneae wrote: post #103
MikeCapone wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Basically, the only people that buy the whole load of nonsense are folks that desperately want to live forever How about people who just don't think getting sick and frail looks like fun? People who don't want to lose loved ones, who think that 100-200k people dying each day is a tragedy, and who think that we and future generations should have a choice on the matter (you can refuse any therapies that are developed…

I'm not against it, I just find his predictions to be so optimistic as to be unrealistic. Cancer is, effectively, a form of aging, which is why it's so damn hard to cure. Fortunately, it's what happens when one cell breaks down. Most other aging happens to all your cells, all at once.

De Grey's research is aimed at preventing cancer, not curing it. De Grey names his efforts "engineered negligible senescence". Senescence means the increase in your probability of developing a deadly disease within the next N years as you grow older. The probability of developing most cancers increases rapidly with age. The aim is to prevent that increase.

Re: Ask HN: Whom do you admire most?

#110

Post by derwiki »

Craig Newmark for being truly a nerd, yet having an enormous impact on society. He spoke at my undergrad commencement (also his alma mater), and what really hit me from his speech was, wow, you WERE an engineering nerd just like all the rest of us.

He inspires me because through his great success, he's remained extremely humble and down to earth. It really seems like he just wants to keep his site going as a public service. They donate a large portion of their income to charity as is.. if only all public services could be run as well that they GIVE extra money away!

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