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Thiel Foundation Announces Next (2023) Thiel Fellow Class

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
A_D_E_P_T 4y ago
Most are trivial, but this... > Cryopets is developing whole-body cryopreservation for pets. ...It's hard to see how this could be anything but a naked grift. It's one thing to believe that you might be resurrected by a future society that has an interest in reviving you and restoring you to health. It's quite another thing to believe that they'll have the means or the inclination to revive your dog. What's more, there's a tremendous gap between the quality of human vs. animal medical care. (Which is why horses are shot after they break their leg, and why a first-line treatment for cancer in animals is euthanization.) There's no reason to assume that this gap will diminish at any point in the near-enough future.
- dnissley 4y ago
  There is a benefit to doing this kind of work on animals: significantly lower regulatory burden, with the option to convert that technology over to humans if it works well enough. There's a similar startup, Loyal, doing work on dog life extension.
  - A_D_E_P_T 4y ago
    Alright, granted. But, in that case, why not just do experiments in rats or rhesus monkeys, like everybody else? Instead of approaching the problem in a rigorous and scientific way, they're pitching a mirage of a product: A way to reunite, in the very distant future, pet owners with their recently deceased animals. In itself, the scientific value of this is minimal. You can apparently sign up for Cryopets with a pet snake, fish, or frog. It's extremely unlikely that such non-mammals are getting revived at all, and there's effectively no way that any techniques that might work on 'em would translate to humans. It's a grift because they're selling a product with < 0.0001% odds of successful delivery. (And I'm being generous here, 1-in-10000 probably considerably overstates their odds of success.) It doesn't look good.
- version_five 4y ago
  It seems like an ultra luxury play. It's a naked grift but it's for people who are going into it with their eyes open and more money than they know what to do with. See e.g. https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/myria https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/myria a "luxury services for ultra high net worth individials" company backed by YC. It's the same target market imo
hubraumhugo 4y ago
I wish I also had the opportunity to join such a program at a young age. Are there similar programs in other countries? Giving young people the possibility to choose entrepreneurship as a viable alternative to a study or a traditional apprenticeship sounds like an amazing way to foster innovation and economic growth. At least where I come from, starting a business and pursuing a bold vision is still facing a lot of scepticism. Governments, schools, investors, and other founders should work together to change this.
version_five 4y ago
I mentioned this in another post recently, the gist if which is these look relatively boring, meaning the same as you'd find in any incubator cohort, it doesn't give the impression of a bunch of big new risk taking in interesting unexplored directions https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34752512 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34752512
- minimaxir 4y ago
  No web3/crypto, though.
  - jacquesm 4y ago
    The locusts have already moved on from that, haven't they?
anonymouskimmer 4y ago
Is anyone doing something like the Thiel fellowships but targeted toward think tanks (such as PARC)? There are a lot more people who can think of ideas than there are people who can think of ideas for a business now.
sundaeofshock 4y ago
I wonder if a Theil Fellowship Might be perceived as a negative in some instances…

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

Most are trivial, but this... > Cryopets is developing whole-body cryopreservation for pets. ...It's hard to see how this could be anything but a naked grift. It's one thing to believe that you might be resurrected by a future society that has an interest in reviving you and restoring you to health. It's quite another thing to believe that they'll have the means or the inclination to revive your dog. What's more, there's a tremendous gap between the quality of human vs. animal medical care. (Which is why horses are shot after they break their leg, and why a first-line treatment for cancer in animals is euthanization.) There's no reason to assume that this gap will diminish at any point in the near-enough future.

dnissley 4y ago
There is a benefit to doing this kind of work on animals: significantly lower regulatory burden, with the option to convert that technology over to humans if it works well enough. There's a similar startup, Loyal, doing work on dog life extension.
- A_D_E_P_T 4y ago
  Alright, granted. But, in that case, why not just do experiments in rats or rhesus monkeys, like everybody else? Instead of approaching the problem in a rigorous and scientific way, they're pitching a mirage of a product: A way to reunite, in the very distant future, pet owners with their recently deceased animals. In itself, the scientific value of this is minimal. You can apparently sign up for Cryopets with a pet snake, fish, or frog. It's extremely unlikely that such non-mammals are getting revived at all, and there's effectively no way that any techniques that might work on 'em would translate to humans. It's a grift because they're selling a product with < 0.0001% odds of successful delivery. (And I'm being generous here, 1-in-10000 probably considerably overstates their odds of success.) It doesn't look good.
version_five 4y ago
It seems like an ultra luxury play. It's a naked grift but it's for people who are going into it with their eyes open and more money than they know what to do with. See e.g. https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/myria https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/myria a "luxury services for ultra high net worth individials" company backed by YC. It's the same target market imo

hubraumhugo 4y ago

I wish I also had the opportunity to join such a program at a young age. Are there similar programs in other countries? Giving young people the possibility to choose entrepreneurship as a viable alternative to a study or a traditional apprenticeship sounds like an amazing way to foster innovation and economic growth. At least where I come from, starting a business and pursuing a bold vision is still facing a lot of scepticism. Governments, schools, investors, and other founders should work together to change this.

version_five 4y ago

I mentioned this in another post recently, the gist if which is these look relatively boring, meaning the same as you'd find in any incubator cohort, it doesn't give the impression of a bunch of big new risk taking in interesting unexplored directions https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34752512 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34752512

minimaxir 4y ago
No web3/crypto, though.
- jacquesm 4y ago
  The locusts have already moved on from that, haven't they?

anonymouskimmer 4y ago

Is anyone doing something like the Thiel fellowships but targeted toward think tanks (such as PARC)? There are a lot more people who can think of ideas than there are people who can think of ideas for a business now.

sundaeofshock 4y ago

I wonder if a Theil Fellowship Might be perceived as a negative in some instances…