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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

#81
post #38

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…

Once the market has chewed on it and made it as cheap as possible, consider subsidizing it or something

Your argument hinges on a hoary anti-Marxist critique. As one example alternative approach, the hundreds of billions, if not trillions, of dollars handed out to financial institutions and/or forgiven in legal penalties could have been used to reimburse companies for creating successful health technologies and treatments. It's a matter of policies and priorities, some of which are broken and some that aren't (Sturgeon's Law), and the market structures of medicine operate in the way that it does for specific reasons not necessarily aligned with benefits for those who are dying or sick.

tl;dr: TIMTOWTDI

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

#82
post #28

Apparently your internet browsing data is not enough, Google also wants your medical records and DNA. Seriously though, I wouldn't trust any company connected with Google for 'health and well being'. Their total disregard for privacy would imply they are not working in my best interest for health either.

Did anyone read the article? This seems to be a biomedical company focused on engineering solutions to aging/illness. It's seemingly not Google Health 2.0.

Not necessarily opposite approaches. If they have all the data on everything I've ever purchased to eat (they probably do...) then they've probably got it on everyone and it would be interesting to produce the definitive statistical analysis of exactly how much corn syrup you have to drink over a lifetime to achieve a 50% chance of diabetes.

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

#83
post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

There's a pretty substantial body of opinion that dying of untreated cancer is, in fact, kind of horrible.

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

#85
post #60
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.

Let's take that offline.

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

#86
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 are assuming resources are limited, but they are infinite. Making the assumption the Universe is infinite.

>You are assuming resources are limited, but they are infinite. Making the assumption the Universe is infinite.

Silliest thing I've read all day. There are huge costs associated with extracting resources here on earth, let alone from the stars. And even if "the universe" is infinite, no new matter is being generated.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heat_death_of_the_universe

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

#87

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…

Indeed, what's the cost going to be for once someone finds a "cure" for cancer? Society should offer a bounty for such a thing, and then scientists / researchers are incentivized more towards the problem, and will be rewarded - as well as their research supporters - if successful.

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

#88
Great, but will wait till something cool comes out of it, or when they shut it down. Right now that's all I can say with the info given.

But yeah, Google has managed to suck the oxygen out of others with every new announcement (self-driving cars are one example http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autonomous_car#History )

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

#89
post #60
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.

You're not leveraging your competitive advantages, there. I bet you don't even brainstorm blue-sky thinking for an innovation agenda. Tsk tsk.
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