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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

#131

Post by canvia »

crassus wrote: post #46

This is a great first step. But realistically they can only move so fast with FDA regulation increasing your iteration cycle time on therapies to 10 years. Our biomedical regulatory regime is extremely risk averse. If we had a regime where anyone could voluntarily place any therapy into their own body, we'd move a lot faster. Yes, a few more people would die in testing. But a lot more lives would be saved by the ther…

The root cause is sociopathic control freaks who think they know best, and want to tell other people what to do. It's the reason why so many victimless crimes are punishable with prison time. You can't dictate morality. Preventing someone from doing whatever they please with their body is what is truly immoral, society just needs to realize that.

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

#132

Post by bowlofpetunias »

natrius wrote: post #114
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.

Can you name something that was only for the elites fifty years ago that isn't available to pretty much everyone today? This is what progress always looks like.

Clean water. Basic health care. Not dying from diseases we've already been able to cheaply cure or prevent for decades.

Oh, I'm sorry, you don't consider yourself part of the elite?

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

#133

Post by SkyMarshal »

prlambert wrote: post #118
FD3SA wrote: 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?

He's not, he's just well known as having put together the first clear roadmap for life extension and ultimately "curing" death. If anyone could be considered the "father" of the field, it's him. Hence the comparisons people are making.

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

#134

Post by eli_gottlieb »

jerf wrote: post #38
ianstallings wrote: post #20

I for one welcome my immortal transhumanist cyborg overlords. But seriously, the fact that the first thing they do is start a corporation to control the science is not exactly comforting to me. Genentech is known for selling Avastin, their drug that fights cancer for $55k after they received harsh criticism for the proposed cost of $100k+/year. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bevacizumab#Costs I fear a future where "all…

Like with anything else, the question isn't whether the rich will be able to afford it, the question is how much progress can we make in making it cheap, how quickly, to get it to how many people? It is a moral imperative to make sure that short-sighted class warfare does not cut off the nose to spite the face by destroying this work under the guise of egalitarianism, because we can not turn on a dime and immediately…

Sorry, but no. Transhuman-level stuff is not safe or even morally allowable for our current society. No. Just freaking no.

I was born in a world where two things in life got to everyone: death, and taxes. They've already "relieved" the elite of taxes, and now they're looking to do the same for death.

No. We are not their cattle, and they are not our shepherds.

You want immortality, robots, and post-scarcity awesomeness? Great. Make it for everyone.

Don't develop The Future just so the capitalist elite can exploit even harder.

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

#135

Post by eli_gottlieb »

Florin_Andrei wrote: post #123
melling wrote: post #113

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.

http://lesswrong.com/lw/6vq/on_the_unpopularity_of_cryonics_...

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

#136

Post by Florin_Andrei »

VikingCoder wrote: post #33
gdulli wrote: post #29

I'd rather see a high quality of life for everyone on earth for 80 years than 150+ year life spans for the first world. Which will just further increase the footprint of the rich and divert resources from the poor. Not to mention, it's a more attainable goal. It doesn't help much to keep the body going for 50 more years if you can't also keep the brain going. I believe these are very different problems. If you can so…

You either believe in capitalism, or you don't. Google believes in capitalism. They will offer goods and services to people who can afford them, and they will also work to make their products more accessible to those with limited resources. I personally believe Android will have enormous long-lasting positive impacts on the rest of the world. A $25 smartphone ... A $10 smartphone... A $5 smartphone... Giving access t…

> You either believe in capitalism, or you don't.

I hope what you really meant was far, far better than what you made it to sound like.

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

#137

Post by julespitt »

eli_gottlieb wrote: post #134
jerf wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Like with anything else, the question isn't whether the rich will be able to afford it, the question is how much progress can we make in making it cheap, how quickly, to get it to how many people? It is a moral imperative to make sure that short-sighted class warfare does not cut off the nose to spite the face by destroying this work under the guise of egalitarianism, because we can not turn on a dime and immediately…

Sorry, but no . Transhuman-level stuff is not safe or even morally allowable for our current society. No. Just freaking no . I was born in a world where two things in life got to everyone: death, and taxes. They've already "relieved" the elite of taxes, and now they're looking to do the same for death. No. We are not their cattle, and they are not our shepherds. You want immortality, robots, and post-scarcity awesome…

You can't "make it for everyone" before you figure out how to make it in the first place.

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

#138

Post by Techowl »

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.

Affording proper care is definitely a problem, but the diseases of aging are the greatest causes of death globally, not infectious diseases or other health problems [1]. Taking care of diseases like malaria is unquestionably a noble and important task, but if we're talking about the world as a whole, aging is actually the greatest burden on health right now. Cardiovascular problems in particular are a serious problem worldwide [2].

1 - http://who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs310/en/ 2 - http://www.who.int/cardiovascular_diseases/publications/glob... There are tons of statistics at http://apps.who.int/gho/data/node.main.CODWORLD?lang=en for the full picture.

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

#139

Post by eli_gottlieb »

julespitt wrote: post #137
eli_gottlieb wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry, but no . Transhuman-level stuff is not safe or even morally allowable for our current society. No. Just freaking no . I was born in a world where two things in life got to everyone: death, and taxes. They've already "relieved" the elite of taxes, and now they're looking to do the same for death. No. We are not their cattle, and they are not our shepherds. You want immortality, robots, and post-scarcity awesome…

You can't "make it for everyone" before you figure out how to make it in the first place.

Then fund a nonprofit research agency rather than a for-profit productizing company. Lots of countries have public healthcare systems who could administer life-extension treatments universally if they're not locked down and treated as proprietary, for-profit products!

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

#140

Post by MyNewAccount99 »

gvr wrote: post #17

This sounds super interesting. I couldn't find a site for the company; do they have one? Calico.com is registered to Oracle and there's nothing there.

maybe they are partnering w/ them. which makes sense. cause Larry Ellison has invested a lot in those extending life of mice competitions and in general extending life research.
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