Entropy always wins. That goes for both wealth and lifespans.
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AI will make this discussion mostly obsolete. Good or bad, it will change everything.
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I think it’s an unfair concern. Technology is advancing so rapidly that finding biological aging will likely be available worldwide and easy to access. People no longer reproduce, the world population begins to decline as of the 2070s, and the number of new births has decreased incredibly in most countries. Humanity will establish colonies on the moons of Mars, Saturn and Jupiter. In other words, space is infinitely vast and even if aging were stopped, we could not even fill our own solar system. As for billionaires, at that stage new legal regulations will be made by the states, this is not a difficult thing.
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I’ll believe the population might decline, but living off planet earth will be prohibitively expensive and painful. We have trouble working in buildings on earth. Cosmic radiation, lack of solar radiation of the right frequency, magnetism…all kinds of things besides basic food and water will be improperly regulated. It might be fun to watch, but don’t expect this to ever, ever work.
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As far as reproduction levels, we know now that when humans have the ability to control how many offspring they have, they don’t quite have enough to replace themselves… in the current environment. What we don’t know is how many offspring people would have in a world with much less work (due to automation) or a world where lifespans are 2-3x longer (likely people would eventually choose to have children with more time to mature and grow and establish oneself and find a suitable partner, rather than racing against the clock. Also people who have already had children and want more would have more reproductive years in which to do it.)
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I think also it will be easier to manage fertility when there is less of a need for the woman to give birth when particularly chronologically young.
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Think these are examples of ultra net worth people’s investments being good for everyone over time:
Altos Labs: The Future of Cellular Rejuvenation
As Altos Labs CEO & Founder Hal Barron, MD, eloquently states:
“We now have pre-clinical data suggesting that the cellular dysfunction associated with ageing and disease can be reversible. This knowledge means that it may, one day, be possible to transform patients’ lives by reversing disease, injury and the disabilities that can occur throughout life.”
In a move that sent shockwaves through the scientific community, Altos Labs launched in 2022 with an astonishing $3 billion in funding, backed by visionary billionaires Jeff Bezos and Yuri Milner.
The company’s innovative approach is structured around two key entities: the Altos Institutes of Science, dedicated to exploring deep scientific questions and integrating findings into a collaborative research effort, and the Altos Institutes of Medicine, focused on translating knowledge about cell health and programming into transformative medicines.
Armed with this substantial funding, Altos Labs has set its sights on an ambitious mission: to restore cell health and resilience through cellular rejuvenation programming, with the ultimate goal of reversing disease, injury, and age-related disabilities.
To achieve this monumental task, the company has assembled a star-studded lineup of the world’s most brilliant minds in science and research.
Among the luminaries at Altos Labs are four Nobel laureates: Frances Arnold, PhD (2018 Chemistry), David Baltimore, PhD (1975 Medicine), Jennifer Doudna, PhD (2020 Chemistry), and Shinya Yamanaka, MD, PhD (2012 Medicine).
The company has also recruited longevity expert Dr. Steve Horvath, renowned for his groundbreaking work on epigenetic clocks, and Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte, PhD, who built upon Yamanaka’s findings in 2016 by demonstrating the possibility of “partial” cellular reprogramming.
Altos Labs’ initial focus is to empower its scientists and researchers to unravel the mysteries of rejuvenation.* This includes investigating how to tailor reprogramming to rejuvenate animals without fatal consequences and exploring the potential of ordinary drugs as an alternative to genetic engineering.
NewLimit: Reversing Cellular Aging
NewLimit, co-founded by Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong and venture capitalist Blake Byers, PhD, is taking a bold approach to tackle aging at the cellular level.
But how exactly will they achieve this ambitious goal?
NewLimit’s unique approach lies in the development of epigenetic reprogramming medicines.
as Brian Armstrong puts it:
“Think of how many dollars are spent trying to figure out treatments for major diseases, most of which are in some way correlated to aging … It would be a huge success if you could wipe out even one of those disease categories, so think about how exciting it is to go after something even more fundamental.”
Retro Bio’s Mission: Extending Human Healthspan by 10 Years
With $180 million in investment secured from OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Retro Bio emerged from stealth mode in 2022 with a mission to add 10 years to healthy human lifespan by targeting the cellular drivers of aging
Retro Bio currently has five discovery programs aimed at reversing cellular aging, with two programs, autophagy and in vivo reprogramming, conducted directly in the body.
The other three programs, including T cell and hematopoietic stem cell reprogramming and microglia therapeutics, involve reprogramming cells in the lab and returning rejuvenated cells to the body through a process the company calls “micro replacement.”
In a significant development, Retro Bio recently announced an $85 million partnership with Multiply Labs to enhance the production of its cell therapies targeting age-related diseases.
From
BILLIONAIRES INVESTING IN LONGEVITY
May 26, 2024
Billionaires Investing in Longevity?
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We can already achieve 10-20 years of healthspan increase with current medication and exercise. If this is the bar they are setting for themselves, they probably don’t trust in their own product.
And given current research, it doesn’t appear like cellular programming is really a limiting factor for maximum lifespan, at least not now.
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@Virilius - I think that one company means beyond the current capabilities
But why focus on that detail, that company has founders that clearly are more devoted to longevity than almost anyone
They are probably just trying to use FDA compatible language and avoid it seeming like Sam A is crazy with his longevity goals in media?
And the general point was about three examples of something much bigger
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It’s not anyone’s business what billionaires do with their health or money.
I don’t think I can be proven wrong on this.
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@AnUser
I remember that an attack on multiple Russian ships with Ukrainian drones was stopped by interrupting the GPS. For Ukrain this meant many more attacks by the black sea fleet and many lifes lost…
Bill and Melissa Gates spend a fortune on charity.
So what billionaires do CAN make a lot of difference for the good or for the bad.
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Especially if they manage to get things mandated for the rest of us:
But in general I think I finally agree with you on this. They invest in crazy tech that might never happen otherwise…
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You shouldn’t still compel anyone what they should do with their money or health. More power to the billionaires who live forever.
Its interesting, I think that perhaps one of the “unintended consequences” of improved longevity drugs and treatments is that you have have much more “activist” employees, investors and citizens, who are much more incentivized to do everything possible to get elderly people blocking the rise of others out of their positions of power…
Imagine all the CEOs who never want to leave their jobs because of the status, power, money, etc. they are receiving (and all the people under them who would like them out of that position). The more that these people are blocking advancement to others below them, the more these people will risk to remove these people… because they can live much longer (longer, probably, than the people below them who don’t get paid as much, or get rewarded as much). People have a strong tendancy to over-value their own contributions to organizations, and want to hold on far past their “sell-by” date.
… there are few scenarios in which a middle-aged corporate executive can be treated like an aging rock star by thousands of fawning employees. But on this day, Ballmer was doing something truly admirable: He was retiring. “Microsoft is like a fourth child to me,” he said as he left the company’s stage, his eyes glistening with tears, to the opening chords of “(I’ve Had) The Time of My Life.”
Ballmer’s retirement earned him the corporate equivalent of a Viking’s funeral. But most people seemed to agree that his departure, 14 years after he took over the company from his college classmate Bill Gates, should have happened years earlier. Around the time Ballmer announced his plans to go, the company’s stock price was lower than when he started the job. The media was bemoaning Microsoft’s “lost decade.” While its tech rivals had seized on new markets, Microsoft had changed fairly little. Apple dominated smartphones, Google prevailed in search and giants like Facebook — which didn’t even exist when Ballmer took the reins — stood atop a whole new sector of the economy. With the arrival of Ballmer’s successor, Satya Nadella, Microsoft’s stock price soared.
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I think this is “remaining lifespan” in the main.
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Yes, we’ll see more towards the end of the year it sounds. Quite powerful design if correct that it had 1000 mice. And this is from a single shot, one time, not a multiple repeat, repeat, repeat life long intervention. And its reversal type of approach, not just slow aging like sleep, rapa, CR, etc.
For me it’s impressive that a top, top, top mainstream scientist like Rick Klausner (former head of National Cancer Institute - the largest of all NIH institutes!!!) and a giant in biotech is focusing his life and on longevity via partial reprogramming.
Altos with their $3billion in funding, multiple Nobel Prize Laureates, etc have been quite quiet about their work until now, so also very exciting that they are starting to share some of what they are seeing.
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This is the kinda stuff that allows us to go beyond the 120 barrier.
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Wonder what they’ll charge?