6 ms·

> killing countless people daily 2.09% of deaths, according to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_causes_of_death_by_rate http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o

by wololo 14y ago

> killing countless people daily 2.09% of deaths, according to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_causes_of_death_by_rate http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_causes_of_death_by_rate Question: what would an Elon Musk of those even more common causes of death build?

w1ntermute 14y ago
For cardiovascular disease, how about a way to stop people stuffing their faces with greasy and fattening food?
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
- whatusername 14y ago
  So the Paleo Diet community (and Taubes/etc) would say that the greasy food is part of the solution (and that some perceptions of "fattening" food are wrong)
  - stcredzero 14y ago
    I am doing a low carb thing, and as far as my experience goes, I think they're right.
- MiguelHudnandez 14y ago
  * Gene therapy to make unhealthy foods taste terrible * Nanobots or symbiotic parasites to maintain the body [1] [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parasites_Lost http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parasites_Lost
schiffern 14y ago
A sexy, highly marketable e-cigarette.
- TeMPOraL 14y ago
  That doesn't break very fast. My girlfriend loves e-cigarettes, but it's all fun until the endpoint (*-mizer, whatever they call it) burns out, which it does every week or three, and then there is a battery that tends to fail after around two to three months of usage. </anecdotal-evidence>
  - schiffern 14y ago
    Agreed. It must be better than cigarettes in all ways: cost, convenience, aesthetics, reliability, experience, usability, availability, brand loyalty, etc. There are social factors too. Friends can't bum an e-cigarette. Proprietors may mistakenly enforce smoking bans. Bystanders may think vapor is second-hand smoke. The solution will come with a combination of Apple-esque industrial design and Apple-esque advertising savvy. Basically, we need the iSmoke.
    - barrkel 14y ago
      My father started smoking because people on building sites who smoked got smoke breaks, and people who didn't had to keep working. If I had been of more sociable persuasion when I was in college, I might even have started smoking myself - a lot of conversations, camaraderie etc. and more occur outside pubs, where smokers are often relegated to in these days of smoking bans.
    - TeMPOraL 14y ago
      As far as I can tell (or so my girlfriend and others tell me), they're already better in most ways than normal ones - more cost-effective (though it can be vastly improved with improved reliability), more convenient, they have a big range of flavours to choose from, they get around smoking bans and, most importantly, they don't clog your lungs and don't make you stink. So it's already great, but the reliability issues are incredibly annoying. But the critical mass of popularity has not yet been achieved, so there's a need for this iSmoke you mention, with strong focus on advertising - so that you don't need to date an (non-smoking!) engineer to hear about e-cigarettes and why they're better.

by wololo 14y ago

w1ntermute 14y ago

For cardiovascular disease, how about a way to stop people stuffing their faces with greasy and fattening food?

deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
whatusername 14y ago
So the Paleo Diet community (and Taubes/etc) would say that the greasy food is part of the solution (and that some perceptions of "fattening" food are wrong)
- stcredzero 14y ago
  I am doing a low carb thing, and as far as my experience goes, I think they're right.
MiguelHudnandez 14y ago
* Gene therapy to make unhealthy foods taste terrible * Nanobots or symbiotic parasites to maintain the body [1] [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parasites_Lost http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parasites_Lost

schiffern 14y ago

A sexy, highly marketable e-cigarette.

TeMPOraL 14y ago
That doesn't break very fast. My girlfriend loves e-cigarettes, but it's all fun until the endpoint (*-mizer, whatever they call it) burns out, which it does every week or three, and then there is a battery that tends to fail after around two to three months of usage. </anecdotal-evidence>
- schiffern 14y ago
  Agreed. It must be better than cigarettes in all ways: cost, convenience, aesthetics, reliability, experience, usability, availability, brand loyalty, etc. There are social factors too. Friends can't bum an e-cigarette. Proprietors may mistakenly enforce smoking bans. Bystanders may think vapor is second-hand smoke. The solution will come with a combination of Apple-esque industrial design and Apple-esque advertising savvy. Basically, we need the iSmoke.
  - barrkel 14y ago
    My father started smoking because people on building sites who smoked got smoke breaks, and people who didn't had to keep working. If I had been of more sociable persuasion when I was in college, I might even have started smoking myself - a lot of conversations, camaraderie etc. and more occur outside pubs, where smokers are often relegated to in these days of smoking bans.
  - TeMPOraL 14y ago
    As far as I can tell (or so my girlfriend and others tell me), they're already better in most ways than normal ones - more cost-effective (though it can be vastly improved with improved reliability), more convenient, they have a big range of flavours to choose from, they get around smoking bans and, most importantly, they don't clog your lungs and don't make you stink. So it's already great, but the reliability issues are incredibly annoying. But the critical mass of popularity has not yet been achieved, so there's a need for this iSmoke you mention, with strong focus on advertising - so that you don't need to date an (non-smoking!) engineer to hear about e-cigarettes and why they're better.