Human Upgrade:Tech titans’ latest project: Defy death

Washington Post ^ | April 4, 2015 | Ariana Eunjung Cha

[Candor7]

Seated at the head of a table for 12 with a view of the city’s soaring skyline, Peter Thiel was deep in conversation with his guests, eclectic scientists whose research was considered radical, even heretical.

It was 2004 and Thiel had recently made a tidy fortune selling PayPal, which he co-founded, to eBay. He had spent what he wanted on himself — a posh penthouse suite at the Four Seasons Hotel and a silver Ferrari — and was now soliciting ideas to do good with his money.

The Human Upgrade:

(snip)

Among the guests was Cynthia Kenyon, a molecular biologist and biogerontologist who had garnered attention for doubling the life span of a roundworm by disabling a single gene...( snip)

[Candor7]

I want a new........ahhhhhh? ;-)

[Candor7]

Ping to bioevolution.

[Flavious_Maximus]

I love it when (for once) leftist throw billions of THEIR OWN dollars down the toilet.

[Pecos]

My view is that this is yet another attempt to defy our Creator and claim He is not needed.

[Caipirabob]

Human Upgrade:Tech titans’ latest project: Defy death

Now can we get "term limits"?!?

[Pontiac]

Among the guests was Cynthia Kenyon, a molecular biologist and biogerontologist who had garnered attention for doubling the life span of a roundworm by disabling a single gene

Now there is a gift to the human race; doubling the lifespan of a parasitic worm.

She should get the Nobel Prize.

[Travis McGee]

Click the pic to the full-text Free Republic thread.

Alas, Brave New Babylon 60-second Youtube trailer

[Paradox]

Now there is a gift to the human race; doubling the lifespan of a parasitic worm.

Fascinating experiment actually, could have huge repercussions throughout the medical field.

[Pontiac]

It was ironic humor actually.

Extending the lifespan of a worm that has made many a human’s life miserable might allow humans to live longer.

Truly ironic. Of course that extended life span will still be subject to predation by that same parasitic worm.

[Pontiac]

My view is that this is yet another attempt to defy our Creator and claim He is not needed.

What good does it do a man to gain the whole world and lose his soul?

[AU72]

If I was God I would do an instant recall of the defective product Homo Sapiens 1.0.

[Pontiac]

“If you think you can only do very little and be very incremental, then you’ll work only on very incremental things. It’s self-fulfilling,” Thiel, who is 47 and estimated to be worth $2.2 billion, said in an interview. “It’s those who have an optimism about what can be done that will shape the future.”

He and the tech titans who founded Google, Facebook, eBay, Napster and Netscape are using their billions to rewrite the nation’s science agenda and transform biomedical research.

This is the way scientific research should be funded.

There should not be any Federal funding of scientific research. If Federal funding is available for science it is inevitable that politics will corrupt science.

At least if private funding is what provides for science it will be private funds that are lost if scoundrels persuade someone to fund phony science.

It is also more likely that useful scientific research that will be funded if there is the potential of profit from that science.

Things like renewable energy are unlikely to be funded because there is little chance of a profit unless there if Federal dollars (or tax incentives) subsidizing that research.

Federal funding subverts science to political ends and divert money away from science that could produce marketable products.

But if billionaire wants to fund pie in the sky science like this, well that is fine with me. If it is successful he will make billions more. If it fails science will still have advanced and it will be only his money that is lost

[Candor7]

I sort of liked it too, dream big, win big entrepreneurship.

[Candor7]

Reminds me of the movie “Lucy.” Very enetrtaining.