Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

plus.google.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 400 posts

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

#71

Post by diydsp »

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…

Not only would more die in testing, but more would die in everyday use and results would be so mixed you could hardly get any information out of the experiments.

One of my biggest clients is in the medical device industry. From the surface appearance, any company could make a simulacrum of their main products with perhaps 90% cost-cutting... but life-saving devices are not like inferior iPods or graphic designs. It's not just things like a crappy user interface, poorer display quality and periodic crashes interrupting your musical flow you would have to deal with if any New Jack could make medical devices, but infection, worsened health, extraneous visits to doctors, untraceable health conditions, lack of accountability by your doctor and yes, death through everyday use, etc. After hearing conservative cheapskates bitch about wasted expenses of FDA regulation and liberals bitch about "how easy it is to walk around the FDA," I have come to fully doubt both (read: realize how much they're talking out of their ani) and respect the FDA after working in such close vicinity to them.

And anyway, yes anyone can voluntarily place any therapy in your body- you just can't get a corporation to help you with it in the U.S.

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

#72

Post by jerf »

enraged_camel wrote: post #66
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…

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.

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

#73

Post by JamesArgo »

300bps wrote: post #60
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…

catalyze a shift in the world's thought paradigm Absolutely. The goal should be to enact a vector of a new paradigm, as proactive team players synergize an out-of-the-box strategy of functionality and infotainment, re-engineering the learning curve framework of your dotted-line relationship.

In case you run out of ideas:http://www.1728.org/buzzword.htm

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

#74

Post by vbl »

300bps wrote: post #60
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…

catalyze a shift in the world's thought paradigm Absolutely. The goal should be to enact a vector of a new paradigm, as proactive team players synergize an out-of-the-box strategy of functionality and infotainment, re-engineering the learning curve framework of your dotted-line relationship.

...responsively.

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

#75

Post by jerf »

ianstallings wrote: post #61
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…

I have no problem with free market capitalism, if it's fair. But some think that companies like Genetech exploit the rules around patents and intellectual property at the expense of people's lives and receive preferential status. There's a difference between making your money back to cover the cost of research and development while making a profit, and plain old greed. A 20 year lifetime on a patent with a 3-7 year w…

Bear in mind I consider everything you just said to themselves be failures to allow for a free market. Patents are government monopolies, not creations of a free market.

(To which the natural next slur is "Oh, you want no regulation then?" No, I strongly believe a free market requires some basic maintenance to harness properly, and I'm a particular fan of internalizing externalities via government action. However, virtually by definition, if patents are being "abused", that is not maintenance; that's sand in the gears.)

I consider the idea that we live in some sort of anarchic free market wonderland today to be nothing more than propaganda, used by those who want to use government to take even more control over your life. There's very few free segments of the modern market that are even remotely free; they simply aren't as centrally managed and regulated as they could be.

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

#76

Post by lukev »

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 agree, but existence is so much more important than availability at this point in history.

Accelerate existence by whatever means necessary; availability will follow.

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

#77

Post by staccatomeasure »

jerf wrote: post #56
ginko wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But what about generation warfare? Imagine having to live in a world where all the positions of power are permanently occupied by people from the generation of your great-grandparents.

You mean, that there might be a war between the 150 year olds and the 250 year olds? Sign me up! I don't even care for which side! The base state of the world that we live in is that everybody dies . Your hypotheticals about how horrible it might be to live in a world where people might not die have to be pretty horrible to compete with what is already true . (Mind you, this is not an unleapable bar, in my opinion, b…

Dying isn't horrible at all. It's a part of the lifecycle.

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

#78

Post by ianstallings »

jonknee wrote: post #44
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…

> But seriously, the fact that the first thing they do is start a corporation to control the science is not exactly comforting to me. How else would they do it?

Well they could do a non-profit, a trust, setup labs, or just donate to existing research labs. In a business the goal of profit is not just a thing that leaders should be doing, but a legal responsibility to share holders that can't be ignored.

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

#79

Post by VLM »

frozenport wrote: post #48

With all that Google knows about you, they might as well have a clone ready when you die!

Unless you're about 95 years old today, GOOG will probably shutter the service before you die.

They already went thru one iteration of electronic medical record, which is too bad because it sounded interesting but the first time I heard about it was on a READER feed as it was being shutdown. Before READER shut down of course.

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

#80

Post by ianstallings »

apr wrote: post #57
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…

Are you suggesting that I'd be better if the technology is not available to anyone lest some people live longer than others? I am pretty sure that in the beginning the new technologies will be accessible only to the people who can spare some cash, but I am also pretty sure that the cost will go down, as it has for any other technology.

No I'm suggesting that society as a whole should be part of the conversation about not only seeking immortality but also how much one can benefit from such wonderful breakthroughs. I would love to see people I love live forever. But there are ethical issues around the industry that we all need to discuss.
Post reply on HN