Live data from Hacker News

Brazilian Billionaire Creates Plan to Beat Death

bloomberg.com

11–20 of 87 posts

Re: Brazilian Billionaire Creates Plan to Beat Death

#11
post #8
post #2

Not sure working out and eating well will cheat death that long. Now if we could find some way to back up the software...

Cryonics?

Cryonics is similar to religion, it just seemingly costs more. You invest in a promise that may or may not be reality, with religion it's 'follow these rules for ever lasting life after you die', whereas cryonics is 'pay us to cryogenically preserve your body so you may have ever lasting life after death'.

Re: Brazilian Billionaire Creates Plan to Beat Death

#12
Anecdotally the elderly people I've known who've lived the longest, have been the ones who've been active as long as possible, not just with exercise but also trying to continue either working in some regard or continue travelling and exploring. I'd imagine there's likely studies on it, but as our population ages it'll become more significant.

Re: Brazilian Billionaire Creates Plan to Beat Death

#13
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cryonics?

Cryonics is similar to religion, it just seemingly costs more. You invest in a promise that may or may not be reality, with religion it's 'follow these rules for ever lasting life after you die', whereas cryonics is 'pay us to cryogenically preserve your body so you may have ever lasting life after death'.

Similar, but at least one option has a mathematical possibility of working out...

Re: Brazilian Billionaire Creates Plan to Beat Death

#15
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cryonics?

Cryonics is similar to religion, it just seemingly costs more. You invest in a promise that may or may not be reality, with religion it's 'follow these rules for ever lasting life after you die', whereas cryonics is 'pay us to cryogenically preserve your body so you may have ever lasting life after death'.

> You invest in a promise that may or may not be reality

With religion I can be quite sure it won't be a reality, as there is no trace of actual gods anywhere I look, but a lot of good evidence of it being just a social and cultural phenomenon.

Cryonics depends on the adequacy to preserve neural information of the currently used methods, of which I am uncertain but at least is in the realm of actual science.

Re: Brazilian Billionaire Creates Plan to Beat Death

#17
post #10

He's found the best way to live an extended life - be rich. He has access to health care and doctors most people can't afford & preventative tests that typical insurance doesn't cover. Of course, just because you have access to that type of health care, doesn't mean you take advantage of it - Warren Buffett famously put off his colorectal exams forever, nearly costing him dearly. The other aspect of this article that…

I don't know, my grandfather now pasted away in his 70s could run a mile faster than me back in my teens and I could run the mile in just under 5 minutes. We used to race at the track. He lived until he was 91. The reality is you can be pretty active and enjoy life well into your 80s but it only takes one thing to go wrong at that age for pretty much everything to stop. He has a stomach issue where is large intestine…

Not that it contradicts the point you are making, but the world (recorded) mile record for a 70 year old male is just under 5:20. (or 4:53 for the 1500m) http://www.world-masters-athletics.org/records/outdoor-men

(Irrelevant, but I added the 1500m time for people not familiar with mile times. But actually this mile record was set in the Netherlands, while the 1500m record was set in California. :P )

Re: Brazilian Billionaire Creates Plan to Beat Death

#18
Awhile ago there was a wonderful little post about the probability distributions of human lifespan. The distributions fall off super-exponentially with age. What this means is that chances of someone living past 130 without major medical intervention is astronomically small.

Even with medical intervention, it seems unlikely someone will live much past the 130 year barrier.

Link: http://gravityandlevity.wordpress.com/2009/07/08/your-body-w...

Re: Brazilian Billionaire Creates Plan to Beat Death

#20

Anecdotally the elderly people I've known who've lived the longest, have been the ones who've been active as long as possible, not just with exercise but also trying to continue either working in some regard or continue travelling and exploring. I'd imagine there's likely studies on it, but as our population ages it'll become more significant.

There's an excellent article about this in the NYT: http://mobile.nytimes.com/2012/10/28/magazine/the-island-whe...
Post reply on HN