Peter Thiel Is Very, Very Interested in Young People's Blood | Hacker News Reader

Peter Thiel Is Very, Very Interested in Young People's Blood

inc.com

37 pointsjerryhuang10018 comments

The title seems very derogatory and the article seems like a hit-piece, when they mention that he's a Trump supporter.

How about also mention that the Google founders are investing just as much money in an anti-aging cure:

http://www.digitaljournal.com/life/health/google-founders-in...

The title seems derogatory, but it's on point. One could use a euphemism like "Peter Thiel is interested in anti-aging research!", but that kind of downplays the creepiness of the particular approach he is interested in: parabiosis.

And why isn't it relevant to mention that he is a Trump supporter? That likely marks him as some sort of libertarian willing to give up ethics for the sake of utility.

Just another thing worth being skeptical about, apart from his recent spate of controversial actions.

We're in the middle of an election cycle - any connections to one candidate or the other are "newsworthy". That aside it's a convenient reminder, for those who didn't know who he was before.

Unlike after the election where we will all conveniently forget who supported who and who said or promised what.

You didn't mention that Google are Clinton Foundation Donors [1] for $500,000-$1,000,000

[1] http://www.politico.com/blogs/media/2015/05/clinton-foundati...

I noticed that as well. It's been well-known that Thiel has been funding anti-aging research for some time now. It's not until very recently that it's being published sensationally as 'Peter Thiel Wants Your Young Blood!'.

My girlfriend spent a couple of years in a lab that studies blood factors in aging -- parabiosis was an important aspect of their methodology.

A couple of notes:

1) Parabiosis does not refer to infusions of young blood. Parabiosis specifically refers to the surgical joining of two organisms. This technique is employed in young blood experimentation because the amount of blood that must be exchanged to achieve substantial results would be impractical via transfusion.

2) Young blood research, having established that blood factors in aging do, in fact, exist, currently focuses largely upon isolating and reproducing those factors. While the desperate may pursue actual young blood transfusions -- which, recall, are incapable of providing enough blood to achieve a material result, and are fraught with other risks -- the product that is eventually brought to market will, presumably, be synthesized in a chemical plant.

Mr. Thiel must have read about the "sewn mice together" study. I think it's nice that primitive and atavistic fears about vampiric aristocrats may actually end up having some small basis in reality.

He could become Eldritch Palmer in The Strain [0]

[0] http://the-strain.wikia.com/wiki/Eldritch_Palmer

Oh, very nice. On a not entirely unrelated note, have you read the Altered Carbon series? Possibly an even more desirable outcome for the hyper-wealthy.

No, but I'll look them up :-)

Well then, I suspect you'll enjoy the trilogy a lot. It's definitely something I'd expect many here on HN to enjoy.

There's a vampire association in here somewhere...

Finally there's a way for the millennials to pay off their student loans.

Lol

They better be quick. Unlike wine, the older is not better.

Further reading: http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/08/young-blood-antiaging...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Bogdanov:

"In 1924, Bogdanov started his blood transfusion experiments, apparently hoping to achieve eternal youth or at least partial rejuvenation. Lenin's sister Maria Ulyanova was among many who volunteered to take part in Bogdanov's experiments. After undergoing 11 blood transfusions, he remarked with satisfaction on the improvement of his eyesight, suspension of balding, and other positive symptoms. The fellow revolutionary Leonid Krasin wrote to his wife that "Bogdanov seems to have become 7, no, 10 years younger after the operation".

this area is "strangely underexplored" because it could encourage the exploitation of desperate young people. to be fair, this market already exists (donors already earn money for plasma donations), it's just about whether or not a new use case dramatically grows the market

Note the parallels with the illegal organ market.

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