7 ms·

I don't understand these old bilionaires. It seems there's so much work to be done, and possibly a great deal of low-hanging fruit, in anti-aging research. Who'

by venus 12y ago

I don't understand these old bilionaires. It seems there's so much work to be done, and possibly a great deal of low-hanging fruit, in anti-aging research. Who's to say what Aubrey de Grey et al would have been able to deliver by now if given a few billion ten years ago? You can't take it with you. Give it to science, FFS.

orcdork 12y ago
Why?
terhechte 12y ago
It may be that people are so accustomed to ageing and death, that even smart ones, especially if they were raised in the Western / Christian belief system, tend to accept death on such a fundamental level, that the idea of battling death simply doesn't compute for them. Or, is discarded as science fiction comic book hokum.
- fred_durst 12y ago
  I accept death because I consider it the morally right thing to do. Others died to make room for me, and someday it will be my turn to make room for others.
  - arrrg 12y ago
    See, that’s exactly the kind of fucked up thinking that’s so creepy about this. This acceptance of death is something I just cannot understand. The nonchalance with which the complete destruction of conscious minds is accepted is mind-boggling.
- psykovsky 12y ago
  Dude, I really don't understand the downvotes. The most insightful reply... I'm speechless!
tokenadult 12y ago
From the text of the article kindly submitted here: "Karl Albrecht established the Elisen Foundation to support cultural causes, and his Oertel trust, which controlled a portion of Aldi Sued, also donates to medical research." Any working scientist who is actively involved in anti-aging research can tell you that Aubrey de Grey is not going to deliver with his approach. The current Wikipedia article on de Grey is largely written by de Grey and his close friends, and the article there about his approach to anti-aging research is written mostly by fans of his research. Wikipedia is currently a biased source. But I have been going to the complete journal subscriptions of a large research university with a medical school, with updating Wikipedia in mind. The general approach advocated by de Grey (and pursued by other researchers) is interesting, and was worth looking at when it was first mentioned, but it is not panning out as a general approach to reduce risk of aging-related health problems. I think the billionaire mentioned in the article kindly submitted here, who lived into his nineties, knew more on a practical level about how not to age too soon than de Grey does. (Aubrey de Grey has no medical training, after all.)
- venus 12y ago
  Mea culpa. I didn't read the article. Glad to hear he was supporting medical research. And I didn't really mean to say de Grey had all the answers - I'm by no means a fanboy. But I think his approach deserves a lot more attention and research dollars than it's getting. It's far too premature to write it off as "not panning out" - with respect, the medical establishment's efforts aren't "panning out" either, with orders of magnitude more budget. I am not a doctor either, but I am a student of history, and history is replete with established fields of study resisting disruptive (and correct) new ideas until the very last. I'm not saying this is the case, but it is something we need to consider when you write of the dismissal of all these "working scientists", with their educations and investment in the status quo. It seems extremely plausible to me that a maintenance-based approach will win in the end, and de Grey's work, while not perfect, is at least a decent first effort. And I doubt this 94-yr-old had any specific knowledge. 94 is on the upper end of a normal lifespan, given healthy lifestyle and the best medicine money can by. It's a little disingenuous to claim that by pure dint of that longevity he knows more than de Grey, who has spent years studying the matter, doctor or not.
onion2k 12y ago
From the article; Karl Albrecht established the Elisen Foundation to support cultural causes, and his Oertel trust, which controlled a portion of Aldi Sued, also donates to medical research. It's quite possible that he did exactly what you suggest.
logicallee 12y ago
Sure, blame the victim. How is old age not literally every single person's problem who hasn't committed to suicide by a certain age? It would be completely justified to spend 1% of world GDP on aging research - that is something like $700 billion per year, $7 trillion by 2025. It's free money, too, as if you increase life expency from 70 to 90 I'm sure the people choosing to keep working from 65 or 70 up from 56 or 60 would more than account for a 1% increase in GDP. It's just free cash for the economy.
- bmelton 12y ago
  Until we can get more people's retirement plans solvent enough that they can live until 120 and be reliably not poor, I disagree with your assertion that it's free money.
  - logicallee 12y ago
    we're not doing the analysis similarly, I don't mean research to make someone old and decrepit for an extra 30 years, I mean to keep people younger, longer. Just as a 60 year old rich venture capitalist might still be at the prime of their career today, maybe after 20 years of research the same will be true at 70. Those ten years, maybe 20% of their career after education, are free money. They would otherwise be unfit for or not interested in work.
    - bmelton 12y ago
      Fair enough, but that introduces the idea to me that you've just eliminated retirement. Even if I'm fit and healthy age the age of 90, I can't imagine wanting to, y'know, do things beyond care for my grandkids and such.
      - venus 12y ago
        > Even if I'm fit and healthy age the age of 90, I can't imagine wanting to, y'know, do things beyond care for my grandkids and such. So let me get this straight. If you had the exact same physical and mental ability as you do now when you are 90, you'd still want to do nothing except care for your grandkids? Nothing else at all? You wouldn't want to travel, work on interesting things, maybe try a new career? Why on earth not?
Cthulhu_ 12y ago
Pretty sure there's better causes to donate to than anti-aging if you're a billionaire. Funding disease research and whatnot will also increase the average lifespan, for example. Plus 94 is a very respectable age, I for one don't think I'd want to live for that long.

by venus 12y ago

orcdork 12y ago

Why?

terhechte 12y ago

It may be that people are so accustomed to ageing and death, that even smart ones, especially if they were raised in the Western / Christian belief system, tend to accept death on such a fundamental level, that the idea of battling death simply doesn't compute for them. Or, is discarded as science fiction comic book hokum.

fred_durst 12y ago
I accept death because I consider it the morally right thing to do. Others died to make room for me, and someday it will be my turn to make room for others.
- arrrg 12y ago
  See, that’s exactly the kind of fucked up thinking that’s so creepy about this. This acceptance of death is something I just cannot understand. The nonchalance with which the complete destruction of conscious minds is accepted is mind-boggling.
psykovsky 12y ago
Dude, I really don't understand the downvotes. The most insightful reply... I'm speechless!

tokenadult 12y ago

From the text of the article kindly submitted here: "Karl Albrecht established the Elisen Foundation to support cultural causes, and his Oertel trust, which controlled a portion of Aldi Sued, also donates to medical research." Any working scientist who is actively involved in anti-aging research can tell you that Aubrey de Grey is not going to deliver with his approach. The current Wikipedia article on de Grey is largely written by de Grey and his close friends, and the article there about his approach to anti-aging research is written mostly by fans of his research. Wikipedia is currently a biased source. But I have been going to the complete journal subscriptions of a large research university with a medical school, with updating Wikipedia in mind. The general approach advocated by de Grey (and pursued by other researchers) is interesting, and was worth looking at when it was first mentioned, but it is not panning out as a general approach to reduce risk of aging-related health problems. I think the billionaire mentioned in the article kindly submitted here, who lived into his nineties, knew more on a practical level about how not to age too soon than de Grey does. (Aubrey de Grey has no medical training, after all.)

venus 12y ago
Mea culpa. I didn't read the article. Glad to hear he was supporting medical research. And I didn't really mean to say de Grey had all the answers - I'm by no means a fanboy. But I think his approach deserves a lot more attention and research dollars than it's getting. It's far too premature to write it off as "not panning out" - with respect, the medical establishment's efforts aren't "panning out" either, with orders of magnitude more budget. I am not a doctor either, but I am a student of history, and history is replete with established fields of study resisting disruptive (and correct) new ideas until the very last. I'm not saying this is the case, but it is something we need to consider when you write of the dismissal of all these "working scientists", with their educations and investment in the status quo. It seems extremely plausible to me that a maintenance-based approach will win in the end, and de Grey's work, while not perfect, is at least a decent first effort. And I doubt this 94-yr-old had any specific knowledge. 94 is on the upper end of a normal lifespan, given healthy lifestyle and the best medicine money can by. It's a little disingenuous to claim that by pure dint of that longevity he knows more than de Grey, who has spent years studying the matter, doctor or not.

onion2k 12y ago

From the article; Karl Albrecht established the Elisen Foundation to support cultural causes, and his Oertel trust, which controlled a portion of Aldi Sued, also donates to medical research. It's quite possible that he did exactly what you suggest.

logicallee 12y ago

Sure, blame the victim. How is old age not literally every single person's problem who hasn't committed to suicide by a certain age? It would be completely justified to spend 1% of world GDP on aging research - that is something like $700 billion per year, $7 trillion by 2025. It's free money, too, as if you increase life expency from 70 to 90 I'm sure the people choosing to keep working from 65 or 70 up from 56 or 60 would more than account for a 1% increase in GDP. It's just free cash for the economy.

bmelton 12y ago
Until we can get more people's retirement plans solvent enough that they can live until 120 and be reliably not poor, I disagree with your assertion that it's free money.
- logicallee 12y ago
  we're not doing the analysis similarly, I don't mean research to make someone old and decrepit for an extra 30 years, I mean to keep people younger, longer. Just as a 60 year old rich venture capitalist might still be at the prime of their career today, maybe after 20 years of research the same will be true at 70. Those ten years, maybe 20% of their career after education, are free money. They would otherwise be unfit for or not interested in work.
  - bmelton 12y ago
    Fair enough, but that introduces the idea to me that you've just eliminated retirement. Even if I'm fit and healthy age the age of 90, I can't imagine wanting to, y'know, do things beyond care for my grandkids and such.
    - venus 12y ago
      > Even if I'm fit and healthy age the age of 90, I can't imagine wanting to, y'know, do things beyond care for my grandkids and such. So let me get this straight. If you had the exact same physical and mental ability as you do now when you are 90, you'd still want to do nothing except care for your grandkids? Nothing else at all? You wouldn't want to travel, work on interesting things, maybe try a new career? Why on earth not?

Cthulhu_ 12y ago

Pretty sure there's better causes to donate to than anti-aging if you're a billionaire. Funding disease research and whatnot will also increase the average lifespan, for example. Plus 94 is a very respectable age, I for one don't think I'd want to live for that long.