PayPal founder's new app aims to help couples conceive • Hacker News Board

Re: PayPal founder's new app aims to help couples conceive

#11

Post by usea » Sat, Aug 03, 2013, 1:33 AM UTC

return0 wrote: post #4

scott_karana wrote: post #2

Interesting how thorough the app is. I suppose that'll set it apart from the simpler ovulation trackers. What a huge mine of private data, however! Can you imagine how it would feel to have someone else find a record of your sexual activity, including positions and count of female orgasms?

honestly, who cares about that data?

My ex-girlfriend was kicked out of her church and disowned by her parents because she admitted to being sexually active. She was a senior in high school. She had to finish the school year living out of her car and relying on friends' charity.

Privacy is a protection against (often irrational) people who are out to hurt you.

Re: PayPal founder's new app aims to help couples conceive

#12

Post by monkeypizza » Sat, Aug 03, 2013, 1:36 AM UTC

an idea about Elon Musk announcing a plan to fund 100 women/year to have his children through sperm banks, in 10 generations (1 generation/year), with fully paid support and tutoring for life for the kids, and regularly schedule reunions of generations / the whole group.

It was at attempt to re-introduce cloning style massively parallel reproduction to the human species.

That was what I thought this story would be about.

Seriously though, don't you think Snowden could get a few hundred extremely smart, civil libertarian women to agree to bear his children?

Re: PayPal founder's new app aims to help couples conceive

#13

Post by rdouble » Sat, Aug 03, 2013, 1:41 AM UTC

return0 wrote: post #4

scott_karana wrote: post #2

Interesting how thorough the app is. I suppose that'll set it apart from the simpler ovulation trackers. What a huge mine of private data, however! Can you imagine how it would feel to have someone else find a record of your sexual activity, including positions and count of female orgasms?

honestly, who cares about that data?

Your soon to be ex wife, if your data doesn't jibe with hers.

Re: PayPal founder's new app aims to help couples conceive

#14

Post by josephpmay » Sat, Aug 03, 2013, 1:53 AM UTC

It's interesting how many commenters thought (from the headline) this was Elon Musk, despite the fact that Paypal had 5 founders and Musk has his hands pretty busy right now.

On a related note, has there ever been anything unsuccessful from the Paypal Mafia?

Re: PayPal founder's new app aims to help couples conceive

#15

Post by mscarborough » Sat, Aug 03, 2013, 1:56 AM UTC

monkeypizza wrote: post #12

an idea about Elon Musk announcing a plan to fund 100 women/year to have his children through sperm banks, in 10 generations (1 generation/year), with fully paid support and tutoring for life for the kids, and regularly schedule reunions of generations / the whole group. It was at attempt to re-introduce cloning style massively parallel reproduction to the human species. That was what I thought this story would be ab…

Huh?

Before we start indulging in fantasies of tech folks begatting like in the Bible and creating a master IT race, could we care about the kids that people already created first?

The kids on the planet already have plenty of potential, we really don't need to keep pumping them out.

Re: PayPal founder's new app aims to help couples conceive

#16

Post by derefr » Sat, Aug 03, 2013, 2:11 AM UTC

usea wrote: post #11

return0 wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

honestly, who cares about that data?

My ex-girlfriend was kicked out of her church and disowned by her parents because she admitted to being sexually active. She was a senior in high school. She had to finish the school year living out of her car and relying on friends' charity. Privacy is a protection against (often irrational) people who are out to hurt you.

There might be reason for people to care about the general fact of "did they have sex?"--but this can be inferred/derived from other sources, e.g. purchasing habits.

How people are having sex, on the other hand, is pretty irrelevant to everyone except those people, isn't it?

Re: PayPal founder's new app aims to help couples conceive

#17

Post by greghinch » Sat, Aug 03, 2013, 2:55 AM UTC

aa0 wrote: post #9

"Both men are cyclists in their spare time" Anyone read this and then think of this study? http://www.reuters.com/article/2010/12/10/us-sperm-exercise-...

I lived until recently in a very active community of both cyclists and family-aged couples (Marin, CA, Fairfax to be specific), and heard numerous stories at the local pub about many cyclist men having this very issue. Anecdotal evidence to be sure, but enough to make me find an alternate form of exercise if/when I am trying to have a child.

Re: PayPal founder's new app aims to help couples conceive

#18

Post by anigbrowl » Sat, Aug 03, 2013, 3:27 AM UTC

derefr wrote: post #16

usea wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My ex-girlfriend was kicked out of her church and disowned by her parents because she admitted to being sexually active. She was a senior in high school. She had to finish the school year living out of her car and relying on friends' charity. Privacy is a protection against (often irrational) people who are out to hurt you.

There might be reason for people to care about the general fact of "did they have sex?"--but this can be inferred/derived from other sources, e.g. purchasing habits. How people are having sex, on the other hand, is pretty irrelevant to everyone except those people, isn't it?

The attorney-general of Virginia is seeking to preserve a law that would ban sodomy, which in Virginia includes oral sex. Yes, there are some people who think that how you have sex is very much their business, notwithstanding the fact that they talk out the other side of their mouth about their disdain for big government (I refer here to his arguments against Obamacare).

http://theweek.com/article/index/247156/ken-cuccinellis-crus...

Re: PayPal founder's new app aims to help couples conceive

#19

Post by powera » Sat, Aug 03, 2013, 3:28 AM UTC

How is a phone supposed to passively collect information about sexual positions?

"By asking about sexual positions and female orgasms, for example, the app is collecting data on oft-cited but little-researched possible factors in successful conception. The founders say that physicians have already signed on to use this data in studies. And eventually, Levchin said, they hope to make the data collection totally passive (by using a combination of phone sensors and specialized hardware) so that you don’t even have to take the trouble of entering any numbers yourself."

Re: PayPal founder's new app aims to help couples conceive

#20

Post by wizzard » Sat, Aug 03, 2013, 3:34 AM UTC

powera wrote: post #19

How is a phone supposed to passively collect information about sexual positions? "By asking about sexual positions and female orgasms, for example, the app is collecting data on oft-cited but little-researched possible factors in successful conception. The founders say that physicians have already signed on to use this data in studies. And eventually, Levchin said, they hope to make the data collection totally passiv…

Simple, just prop up your phone and video yourselves having sex. Like a Kinect, it can detect the position of your bodies. And it can analyze the audio to determine if the female orgasmed.

And then the video will be automatically uploaded to the NSA.