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Comment by ggm | Hacker News Reader

This is the kind of investment in technology I think Bill & Melinda Gates should be remembered by, as well as their investment in vaccines and contraception. Great stuff ( and well done to the inventor)

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At a tech meetup a while back, I chatted with someone who had just finished reading a book about Disney. They were lit up and enthused. Walt was a saint; Disney Corporation is a distillation of sunlight and laughter; its motivation and impact on the world is bringing joy to children. I wasn't sure what to say. Perhaps I mumbled something like "I always worry when I haven't seen nuance, that I've noticed only one face of something".

Jonathan Rothberg should have enough money to invest of his own. He is behind several dna sequencing companies.

I had similar thoughts, but then I started realizing that investing in fighting malaria or cheap ultrasound scanners will matter little if in 30-50 years much of our planet becomes uninhabitable, which is now nearly certain unless we take immediate action.

These days I think almost all resources should be thrown into inventing and developing carbon capture technologies.

I don't mean to belittle the achievement or sound harsh, but when thinking of priorities one has to consider what will happen if something is not done.

You can walk and chew gum at the same time...

All these things need to be done. My thoughts center around how do you provide a decent sustainable existence for the other 2-3 billion people on earth[1]. There are a lot of things that need to be done to make that happen. Really affordable basic healthcare is one of those things.

[1] Hint we can't do this via the raw growth and exploitation used to lift the first billion people out of poverty.

Yes, all these things need to be done. But, again, most of these things will matter little if in 30-50 years much of our planet becomes uninhabitable, which is now nearly certain unless we take immediate action.

Those 2-3 billion people on earth you mentioned? Most of those live in the tropical zones and if we do not concentrate on fighting climate change NOW, will not have a place to live. Healthcare will be a secondary issue.

And here I think our highest priority should be stopping the heat death of the universe. Makes global warming seems really small in comparison, no use spending energy on it.

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