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You might look at Peter Thiel's presentations on radical philanthropy or venture philanthropy for a similar view on how philanthropy at the institutional level
by reasonattlm 11y ago
You might look at Peter Thiel's presentations on radical philanthropy or venture philanthropy for a similar view on how philanthropy at the institutional level might be changed. He's been arguing for years that the balance of risk and how money is put to use in the philanthropic world is well out of line with the goal of achieving meaningful results, changing the world rather than just propping up present situations, and rather than the very conservative way it runs now it should look a lot more like venture funding:
http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_16792615 http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_16792615
So that view seems to be spreading, which I think is a good thing in the long run.
Of course as I've argued in the past, I think that the best thing everyone could do with excess money is to donate to some form of SENS-like rejuvenation research to accelerate progress towards an end to degenerative aging. 100,000 lives are lost every day in really very horrible ways, the slow crumbling to a painful death, until we stop it from happening. It's just another medical condition, and the only think stopping the research community from producing therapies is money and the will to use it.
- HBMac 11y agoWould you please look over my submission to this discussion? I am pleased to find this site and eager to enter this field. The Universal Constitution is in a rough writing form because it hasn't been edited at all. Please skim over it and let me know what you think. If you like it I have alot more.
- HBMac 11y agoThank you for this interesting comment. Have you looked over my thread comments concerning the Free Human Society, and The Publication "The Universal Constitution of Humanity?" I agree financing is the major problem for increasing human intelligence. Please check out The Universal Constitution of Humanity.
- reagency 11y agoThe billions of people suffering from non age-related maladies and mistreatments aren't well served by devoting yet more resources to the health concerns of the wealthiest.
- cconcepts 11y agoWell put. I'm happy to face the frailties of old age if I can just spend the hear-and-now trying to do something that matters for people less fortunate than me. If we ever got to a point where some people had greatly extended their lives and/or eliminated death for themselves whilst others still faced premature death from a basic lack of the necessities of life, well then, we'd be an even more narcissistic race than I originally thought.
- melling 11y agoIsn't this argument along the same lines of why explore space while people are starving on earth? There are 7 billion people on the planet. We all shouldn't simply sit by idling until all the basic problems are fixed. Solving the "basic necessities" problem might be more economic related or come down to creating technology to create cheap, clean energy, for example.
- cconcepts 11y agoIm not advocating sitting by idling. I just think it reflects our innate priorities when we put so much effort into extending our own lives when it doesn't take as much effort to greatly extend someone else's life who is less resourced than I am.
- melling 11y agoYou are talking in generalities. What is "so much effort?" If a hundred thousand people work on a problem and spend 10 billion dollars, for instance, are we really depriving the less resourced? The U.S. spends $60 billion on pet food. http://www.americanpetproducts.org/press_industrytrends.asp http://www.americanpetproducts.org/press_industrytrends.asp We spend billions on bottled water: http://www.businessweek.com/debateroom/archives/2008/09/bottled_water_is_a_big_drain.html http://www.businessweek.com/debateroom/archives/2008/09/bott... Shouldn't we drink tap water and use the money saved to get water to people in need?