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Craig Venter has died

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Re: Craig Venter has died

#51

Post by unfitted2545 »

unsupp0rted wrote: post #50
cowsandmilk wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Only 79… far from a complete human experience It seems you’re judging his life solely on the age when he died rather than all the things he did.

Imagine what a guy like that could do with 79 more years... or 10x of that. It's not that outlandish: sharks, turtles, etc get far more years than we do. It's shocking all billionaires aren't devoting all their resources to solving this cosmic crime against humanity.

A complete human experience is to have relatively little time, no point in doing anything if you have 500 years to do it IMO.

Edit: Maybe there wouldn't be nilihism, but I don't think you could get more fulfilled with the extra time. I feel like an insect that lives 24 hours and a shark that lives several hundred have an equal feeling of accomplishment.

Re: Craig Venter has died

#52

Post by unsupp0rted »

unfitted2545 wrote: post #51
unsupp0rted wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Imagine what a guy like that could do with 79 more years... or 10x of that. It's not that outlandish: sharks, turtles, etc get far more years than we do. It's shocking all billionaires aren't devoting all their resources to solving this cosmic crime against humanity.

A complete human experience is to have relatively little time, no point in doing anything if you have 500 years to do it IMO. Edit: Maybe there wouldn't be nilihism, but I don't think you could get more fulfilled with the extra time. I feel like an insect that lives 24 hours and a shark that lives several hundred have an equal feeling of accomplishment.

500 years is as arbitrary a number as 79 is.

A Craig Venter that lives (a healthy life) to 158 is quite likely to accomplish at least 1 more great thing than one who lives to 79.

Re: Craig Venter has died

#53

Post by brettgriffin »

unsupp0rted wrote: post #47
Aeroi wrote: post #22

I raced with him on his boat. During a gybe once, he was swept overboard and the mainsheet wrapped around his torso. He was dragged through the water, but somehow held onto the rail until I was able to pull him back aboard by the loop on his foullies. He was an interesting guy. He had been a medic during the Vietnam War, and his old boat, Sorcerer II, became a platform for his Global Ocean Sampling Expedition from 20…

Only 79… far from a complete human experience. It’s incredibly sad how little time we get here, especially the best of us.

This is just a tragic way to view the world, on so may levels: 79 is a great run for anybody. And more importantly, Craig Venter did more in 79 years than most people could do in two or three lifetimes. Lastly, of course, life is literally the longest thing you will ever experience, regardless of how long it lasts.

I learned a lot about Craig Venter after reading My Life Decoded in college. Truly an amazing person.

Re: Craig Venter has died

#54

Post by [deleted] »

unsupp0rted wrote: post #47
Aeroi wrote: post #22

I raced with him on his boat. During a gybe once, he was swept overboard and the mainsheet wrapped around his torso. He was dragged through the water, but somehow held onto the rail until I was able to pull him back aboard by the loop on his foullies. He was an interesting guy. He had been a medic during the Vietnam War, and his old boat, Sorcerer II, became a platform for his Global Ocean Sampling Expedition from 20…

Only 79… far from a complete human experience. It’s incredibly sad how little time we get here, especially the best of us.

[deleted]

Re: Craig Venter has died

#55

Post by patcon »

unsupp0rted wrote: post #50
cowsandmilk wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Only 79… far from a complete human experience It seems you’re judging his life solely on the age when he died rather than all the things he did.

Imagine what a guy like that could do with 79 more years... or 10x of that. It's not that outlandish: sharks, turtles, etc get far more years than we do. It's shocking all billionaires aren't devoting all their resources to solving this cosmic crime against humanity.

I recognize and appreciate that you likely believe your contribution is one of optimism, but respectfully, I feel ill reading things like this.

Ever heard of Chesterton's fence? I don't believe we are more clever than our mother, the computational machinery of the universe. If we remove death, there will be great consequence.

Heck, it's arguable that the slow decline and death spiral we're in on this planet (empathatically NOT just human well-being metrics here), that this is already due to pushing death back, and systematically allowing power/opportunity to accumulate ever more deeply at scale of the selfish individual...

Re: Craig Venter has died

#56

Post by mcmcmc »

unsupp0rted wrote: post #52
unfitted2545 wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A complete human experience is to have relatively little time, no point in doing anything if you have 500 years to do it IMO. Edit: Maybe there wouldn't be nilihism, but I don't think you could get more fulfilled with the extra time. I feel like an insect that lives 24 hours and a shark that lives several hundred have an equal feeling of accomplishment.

500 years is as arbitrary a number as 79 is. A Craig Venter that lives (a healthy life) to 158 is quite likely to accomplish at least 1 more great thing than one who lives to 79.

More likely that he would live most of those years with compounding mental and physical health issues, quality of life degrading to the point where most would wish for death instead.

Re: Craig Venter has died

#57

Post by melling »

cowsandmilk wrote: post #49
unsupp0rted wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Only 79… far from a complete human experience. It’s incredibly sad how little time we get here, especially the best of us.

> Only 79… far from a complete human experience It seems you’re judging his life solely on the age when he died rather than all the things he did.

I think he’s really just trying to spur your imagination into imagining if someone like that had lived longer.

Anyway, this conversation has been had repeatedly. Many people seem to be unable to imagine that positive benefit of much longer lives.

Suppose that’s why “Science advances one funeral at a time.”

Re: Craig Venter has died

#58

Post by sigmoid10 »

brettgriffin wrote: post #53
unsupp0rted wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Only 79… far from a complete human experience. It’s incredibly sad how little time we get here, especially the best of us.

This is just a tragic way to view the world, on so may levels: 79 is a great run for anybody. And more importantly, Craig Venter did more in 79 years than most people could do in two or three lifetimes. Lastly, of course, life is literally the longest thing you will ever experience, regardless of how long it lasts. I learned a lot about Craig Venter after reading My Life Decoded in college. Truly an amazing person.

>79 is a great run for anybody

Average life expectancy for males in the US is 76.5 years. During the pandemic it dipped below 74. So he was definitely already on the lucky side of the distribution. He also famously once said: "If you want immortality, do something meaningful with your life."

Re: Craig Venter has died

#59

Post by peterfirefly »

epistasis wrote: post #29
apitman wrote: post #3

Craig Venter was famously involved in the Human Genome Project. He announced the first draft of the human genome alongside President Clinton and Francis Collins.

"Involved" in the sense that he took the public data, added in a small amount of his own privately generated data and was trying to get the first assembly. The scientists in the Human Genome Project thought he was going to try to patent the whole thing so others would have to pay him. Back then, it was not clear what was and was not patentable. So the involvement was in spurring the Human Genome Project to race to an…

Involved in the sense that his method worked and the one the Human Genome Project insisted on didn't. In the end, they had to use his method to catch up enough that everybody could pretend they did it together and collaboratively -- even though Venter clearly got there first. Venter deserved a Nobel Prize for that and, quite frankly, the Human Genome Project guys deserved a firing.

Re: Craig Venter has died

#60

Post by Aeroi »

LarsDu88 wrote: post #31

When I was a kid, I saw an interview with him on 60 minutes. He talked about how he had dropped out of college after letting go of his dreams of being an olympic swimmer. He then served as a medic in Vietnam, and tried to commit suicide by jumping off a navy ship (but of course survived on account of being a near olympic class athlete. With a full head of hair). Later I saw him in real life give a talk at Cornell Uni…

Great stories. I asked him about the pig thing, after he pivoted from biofuels (I think they raised $150m from Exxon). If I recall he teamed up with another infamous founder Martin, now Martine, Rothblatt who created SeriusXM and United Therapeutics.
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