7 ms·
Funny how as billionaires get older, they start backing anti-aging and life-extension initiatives.
by ucaetano 10y ago
Funny how as billionaires get older, they start backing anti-aging and life-extension initiatives.
- ryanlol 10y agoDoesn't everyone?
- andrewchambers 10y agoIf I was a billionaire I might start early, leaving it late just seems like poor planning.
- komali2 10y agoWasn't the first act of a Pharaoh traditionally to begin construction of their tomb?
- bertiewhykovich 10y agoGlad to have individuals in our world we can plausibly compare to Pharaohs. That's justifiable.
- matznerd 10y agoWhen you look at the equation of what you do with your life it starts to become more of an imperative to work on ending aging because if that is solved it gives you an infinite or at least much longer time to work on whatever else you want. I am now also starting to get pangs to work on climate damage mitigation because it won't be fun to live in a super hot or flooded world.
- api 10y agoLife extension would really help environmental concerns. The problem with things like global warming, ocean acidification, biodiversity collapse, etc. is that the negative effects are usually too far in the future. But if you're actually going to be around that long, it suddenly becomes a matter of self-interest.
- M_Grey 10y agoBillionaires are not immune to the terrifying realities of life and death, they're just more likely to delude themselves into thinking that like so many rules, they can beat that too. The result is, on the bright side, that sometimes they do some real good by funding research. The downside is that often they blow that money on extremely expensive snake oil.
- mc32 10y agoBut Kurzweil has been banging this drum for a long time. He has means but still isn't near being a billionaire. He just believes.
- M_Grey 10y agoSure, most people bang some form of this drum, but when they do people chuckle. When someone starts swinging tens of millions of dollars whiling banging the drum though... people pay attention. For some strange reason though, they stop seeing it for what it is... dazzled by the money as they are.
- ekianjo 10y agoKurzweil actually not just believes but sells his own snake oil. http://www.rayandterry.com/ http://www.rayandterry.com/ Despite there being no evidence of any effect.
- komali2 10y agoHe still needs money to fund, for example, his cryogenic payments. He wears that little metal bracelet everywhere he goes (I got to a lot of conferences), I can't imagine the service is cheap.
- solotronics 10y agoI read that you set it up so that the cryo people get your life insurance.
- api 10y agoMost actually don't. The field is dramatically under-funded.
- reasonattlm 10y agoSadly very true. Wealth doesn't grant vision.
- dennisgorelik 10y agoLife extension industry is too early. It is much more productive to work on other problems (e.g. solving more immediate problems and do scientific research to help solving these immediate problems). Then later, when technology is robust enough - meaningfully invest into actual anti-aging efforts. Unfortunately the time for meaningful anti-aging research may come in ~100 years when we all would be already long dead.
- cylinder 10y agoWell, I would definitely do the same thing myself.