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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

#281

Post by UnFleshedOne »

netrus wrote: post #27
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…

I for one fear a future where anyone can become immortal. This would result in unimaginable struggles for our ecosystem. I always feel modern medicine should focus on raising life quality for as long as we are alive, rather than extending life itself. But of course this view is painted by the large number of old people living in inhuman conditions we currently have.

Living longer might naturally force people to take a more long-term outlook on the environment.

Also slowing down growth is much more palatable on a basic level if you have that much more time to enjoy what you have and get what you don't have yet.

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

#282

Post by eli_gottlieb »

jerf wrote: post #72
enraged_camel wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Normally I agree, but the implications of anti-aging treatment need to be considered. Yes, the rich will get it first. But then think about what will happen: they will start living longer, and as a result, accumulate even more wealth over their lifetimes. While the poor will have 30-35 years of productive work-life, the rich will have much longer. Combined with the already large difference in their earning power, thi…

And the only other choice is that nobody gets it ever. There's no third choice. There's no magic wand solution where everyone just magically gets it. Don't cut off your nose to spite your face.

There's no magic wand solution where everyone just magically gets it.

Universal health care is a thing, outside America.

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

#283

Post by piyush_soni »

bsullivan01 wrote: post #200
clicks wrote: post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your snark is unnecessary and very misplaced. This will result in a significant thought paradigm shift in all things health-related, and it's a great thing that a company with as many resources and as high of a profile as Google is looking into this. Google is a company that is making self-driving cars, providing incredibly fast internet to consumers, providing Internet to suffering areas with a new idea (the Loon),…

what Jrockway said https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6407580 But your comments are factually wrong. None of Google's products you mention are new or really that much better (so far.) >> Google is a company that is making self-driving cars So is every major car manufacturer out there. Who's ahead of the game? I don't know because Google gets all the press and fawning from fanboys--like you. ">>providing incredibly…

No other company has reached so far in self driving cars as Google has. Learn to live with it.

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

#284

Post by stevewilhelm »

SkyMarshal wrote: post #133
prlambert wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Juan Ponce de León springs to mind. He had a fairly clear roadmap, it just happened to end in Florida.

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

#285

Post by eli_gottlieb »

Sniffnoy wrote: post #280
eli_gottlieb wrote: post #277

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, let's all listen to the man warning us that something will tile the universe in something other than humans . You know, as opposed to not tiling the universe in anything.

I really fail to see what Yudkowsky's ideas about such things have to do with this particular point.

To my knowledge, it's part of the broad criticism that Yudkowsky doesn't seem to have any concept of avoiding overpopulation or general overconsumption of resources. It's like when people go around saying God gave us the Earth to exploit, except with an entire 14-billion light-year-wide Hubble Volume.

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

#286

Post by tassl »

I have always been interested on life-extension with a focus on healthy life. My background is mainly engineering (computer science, mechanical engineering) with focus on machine learning and statistics.

I was thinking on taking some graduate program that would help the transition in this kind of companies; does anybody knows a university/program that would help? I have checked some graduate bioinformatics, but I am not sure what would be more helpful in the long term.

Any idea/suggestion?

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

#287

Post by eli_gottlieb »

dragonwriter wrote: post #279
eli_gottlieb wrote: post #274

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And lo and behold! When we fail to implement estate taxes, compounding investments ensure that the bloodlines of the well-off and long-lived become the rich elite! Remember, this is a scenario where we're talking about 1% of the population getting life-extension while everyone else remains stuck with 80-120 years of maximum lifespan. Those indefinite folks are going to get very wealthy very quickly (as in, within one…

> When we fail to implement estate taxes, compounding investments ensure that the bloodlines of the well-off and long-lived become the rich elite! Right, so compound interest isn't magic as long as you have taxes (and, actually, compound interest per se is rarely a problem when you have taxable interest, appreciation of capital assets that works like interest but isn't is the problem -- and it comes about specificall…

Yes, that's my point. Capitalism is bad, not increased lifespan.

However, given a capitalistic or otherwise zero-sum/proprietarian social system, I cannot support inegalitarian life extension as moral. You need a broadly egalitarian society and broadly egalitarian life-extension.

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

#288

Post by [deleted] »

kaws wrote: post #227

Wow! This reminds me of a comment I saw on HN, or maybe it was a blog post about either Google's Project Loon, or Google Glass. I can't seem to find a link or the actual author, but they essentially said: "What I care about is that Google has become a machine that turns advertising dollars into fundamentally groundbreaking new projects like Google Glass, Project Loon, and self-driving cars. They’re not just trying to…

[deleted]

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

#289

Post by eli_gottlieb »

jpadkins wrote: post #268
julespitt wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is pretty weird that it's not a non-profit, I'll give you that.

Why? What is the functional difference? Non-profits just funnel profits back to execs, instead of shareholders. Non-profit != lower prices.

Prices? You want medical treatment to have a price?

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

#290

Post by dragonwriter »

eli_gottlieb wrote: post #287
dragonwriter wrote: post #279

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> When we fail to implement estate taxes, compounding investments ensure that the bloodlines of the well-off and long-lived become the rich elite! Right, so compound interest isn't magic as long as you have taxes (and, actually, compound interest per se is rarely a problem when you have taxable interest, appreciation of capital assets that works like interest but isn't is the problem -- and it comes about specificall…

Yes, that's my point. Capitalism is bad, not increased lifespan. However, given a capitalistic or otherwise zero-sum/proprietarian social system , I cannot support inegalitarian life extension as moral. You need a broadly egalitarian society and broadly egalitarian life-extension.

So, as long as we have social systems you disapprove of, we should abandon medicine, which, in general, is "life extension"?
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