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Peter Thiel Planning to Live 120 Years

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Re: Peter Thiel Planning to Live 120 Years

#41

Post by revelation »

zarriak wrote: post #13
hawkice wrote: post #2

He's not concerned about cancer, but he takes human growth hormone to limit risk of... bone injuries? Am I out of my mind or is this a several-orders-of-magnitude confusion of relative risks?

He has based his decision off of a cure for cancer coming sooner than aging mitigation. It is just a choice between a possibly cancerous but healthier/stronger body later in life, or a lower chance of cancer but a higher chance of death from the risks associated with losing muscle mass. Although it is really just a preference, I find predicting one's cause of death and trying to choose the optimal health choices an i…

A cure for cancer? Have we all collectively forgotten what cancer actually is?

The human body already incorporates multiple "cures" for cancer or you wouldn't go a year at the rate cells multiply. But then the nature of cancer is that eventually a random mutation will come along that can beat any given cure, just as a million monkeys will eventually type out Mozart.

Re: Peter Thiel Planning to Live 120 Years

#42

Post by zaidf »

uptown wrote: post #27
kyllo wrote: post #11

This sort of thing just screams of narcissism. When you're rich, famous, and smart, it's pretty hard to accept the fact that you're eventually going to die and you can't take any of it with you.

I'd much prefer the venture capitalists of the world to pursue what seems to be impossible over figuring out a better way for me to share photos.

The irony is that its his funding of a photo sharing company that made it possible for him to pursue the impossible.

Re: Peter Thiel Planning to Live 120 Years

#43

Post by kolev »

That's very modest. I plan to live longer to live forever. I'm not sure why people call it "fear of death". Of course, I'm scared of death, but that's not what makes me want to extend my life - it's the curiosity of how we can advance our civilization and the desire to help personally as much as I can. I want to witness us becoming an interplanetary civilization at least, maybe even interstellar. I want to see AI 50 years from now. I want to see my grand-grand-grand-grand children, and so on. So, let's not focus on the fear, please!

Re: Peter Thiel Planning to Live 120 Years

#44

Post by kybernetikos »

lisper wrote: post #4
hawkice wrote: post #2

He's not concerned about cancer, but he takes human growth hormone to limit risk of... bone injuries? Am I out of my mind or is this a several-orders-of-magnitude confusion of relative risks?

It's not as clear-cut as that. The risk of losing muscle leading to bone failure leading to inability to exercise leading to general decline in health leading to premature (if your goal is 120 years) death is very high, bordering on certainty. So increasing your risk of cancer by a few percentage points for a significantly improved shot at an extra few decades may not be quite as crazy as it seems at first blush. [UP…

> so increasing your risk of cancer by a few percentage points for a significantly improved shot at an extra few decades

That reasoning only works given a bunch of conditionals which to most people including experts in the relevant fields seem pretty unlikely. Given that, it'd be great to read more about why he believes the things he does rather than what he's doing about his beliefs, as it's impossible to tell if he's got some interesting insight, or is doing something that only makes sense for him, or in fact is doing something that doesn't make sense at all without knowing more.

Re: Peter Thiel Planning to Live 120 Years

#45

Post by therobot24 »

pjscott wrote: post #29
kyllo wrote: post #11

This sort of thing just screams of narcissism. When you're rich, famous, and smart, it's pretty hard to accept the fact that you're eventually going to die and you can't take any of it with you.

Is it narcissistic to want to avoid early death? Presumably you look both ways before crossing the street.

you're twisting it, he's not trying to avoid an early death, he trying to prolong life (creating a 'late' death), big difference

Re: Peter Thiel Planning to Live 120 Years

#46

Post by oldmanjay »

Chronic30 wrote: post #6
tomhschmidt wrote: post #3

>Thiel said he also follows a Paleo diet, doesn’t eat sugar, drinks red wine and runs regularly. But red wine has sugar in it...

Artificial sugar. Even some natural fruits are bad due to the high levels of natural sugar (e.g. kiwis)

I hear artificial sugar is made from chemicals

Re: Peter Thiel Planning to Live 120 Years

#47

Post by heurist »

kolev wrote: post #43

That's very modest. I plan to live longer to live forever. I'm not sure why people call it "fear of death". Of course, I'm scared of death, but that's not what makes me want to extend my life - it's the curiosity of how we can advance our civilization and the desire to help personally as much as I can. I want to witness us becoming an interplanetary civilization at least, maybe even interstellar. I want to see AI 50…

Have you considered that civilization might be better off if people don't live a long time? Even ignoring resource constraints, old people hold onto outdated ideas and morals while generally also holding the most power and wealth. I don't see how that can be good for future societies.

Re: Peter Thiel Planning to Live 120 Years

#48

Post by ultraorangeand »

Even death is an evolved trait. It's not a problem to be solved. It's a fact of life and a feature of our being just like intelligence.

A person who wants to live forever must believe the resources of the planet belong to them rather than future generations. It's simply narcissism and small mindedness. It's also stupid to think that being a good investor makes a person ethically or scientifically knowledgable.

On the contrary, Thiel is being taken to the cleaners by quacks...

Re: Peter Thiel Planning to Live 120 Years

#49

Post by uptown »

zaidf wrote: post #42
uptown wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd much prefer the venture capitalists of the world to pursue what seems to be impossible over figuring out a better way for me to share photos.

The irony is that its his funding of a photo sharing company that made it possible for him to pursue the impossible.

Well yes ... that and Paypal.

Re: Peter Thiel Planning to Live 120 Years

#50

Post by kolev »

heurist wrote: post #47
kolev wrote: post #43

That's very modest. I plan to live longer to live forever. I'm not sure why people call it "fear of death". Of course, I'm scared of death, but that's not what makes me want to extend my life - it's the curiosity of how we can advance our civilization and the desire to help personally as much as I can. I want to witness us becoming an interplanetary civilization at least, maybe even interstellar. I want to see AI 50…

Have you considered that civilization might be better off if people don't live a long time? Even ignoring resource constraints, old people hold onto outdated ideas and morals while generally also holding the most power and wealth. I don't see how that can be good for future societies.

I agree. Evolution designed us to die and pass information to newer and less flawed offsprings. But my point was that we need to be able to contribute unique benefits otherwise will be nothing, but burden. Look at Stephen Hawing, for example. His brain regardless of physical condition is contributing greatly to our civilization. So, again, the filter should always be - are you worthy of living long or not. Given the fact that most of people who live today contribute nothing, but a ton of shit (literally speaking) in their lifetime, unconditional life extension looks like a terrible idea (unless we advance to the interstellar level and use more resources than what's available on our sorry planet). Unfortunately, a reasonable thing like this would be considered unethical given today's standards although our society is indeed more unethical than ever. Until we grow to a level where the benefit of the group if above the benefit of niches, we'll be confined on this planet, we'll be suffering from our broken system, which is based on dollars and not merits. I highly recommend for hackers to get familiar with The Venus Project [0] and the philosophy of Jacque Fresco [1], who many call the Leonardo da Vinci of the modern day. Although my ideas are different, we have a very common theme - the current system is terribly broken.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Venus_Project [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacque_Fresco

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