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Comment by citizenpaul | Hacker News Reader

Its always been astounding to me that these muti billionairs we have today put so little of their vast fortunes into research for something that will 100%affect them.

I know one of the rockafellers was into life extenssion big time but he died of old age (91) a few years back. Im not sure what kind of legacy he as left if any on that front as far as funding. I fear his death likely set back research by decades though

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Billionaires either have to volunteer to be the guinea pigs for radical experimental anti-ageing therapies or accept that by the time treatments are proved safe and somewhat effective it's probably going to be too late for them. And if it isn't going to save them, there's plenty of strong competition for their philanthropic dollars, some of it with impressive results.

Surely it's not hard to come up with ways to avoid being the guinea pig. Find multiple aging based ailments that have lots of patients and fund a study.

The issue is that you will get the results on the subjects after your life is over or coming to end, unless it is the case that we could make life of a person currently >60 years old long which seems unlikely to me. So you would have to wait for 40 years before you know the results with good enough certainty.

Zuck is still relatively young. Maybe he'll become our first immortal overlord.

Seems to me if you life is coming to an end that would increase the urgency. Remember money is not an object here it is basically just will to do it. The money is irrelevant. There is also the possiblity of increasing quality of life even if it doesn't save you.

I mean do nothing 0%, do something and any chance is better. The money doesn't matter.

Won’t help much. I read that if we cure all types of cancer it will extend average life expectancy by just over a couple of years. Because if not cancer then something else will get you in old age. I guess if cancer did not affect younger people then we wouldn’t have cared about curing it as much. 8 year old with leukemia looks a lot more dramatic than a 80 years old :)

I'm not sure that's true. There are plenty wealthy twenty somethings. I don't think it's out of question anti aging treatment bears significant fruit in the next 70 years.

There is no requirement to be a guinea pig for the research. Why do you think that?

My whole point was if you have more money than god what is a few hundred million to setup a research lab for something that will definitely kill you? If I knew an army was coming to kill me and I had no hope I would still start using my billions to rally some sort of defense. Why sit around and do nothing when I have resources sitting idle?

but they do...

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/09/21/silicon-valleys-quest-to-liv...

'Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Alphabet’s Larry Page, Oracle’s Larry Ellison and Palantir’s Peter Thiel are just a few of the super-rich who have taken a keen interest in the fast-emerging field of longevity`

Regarding Google / Larry Page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calico_(company).

has this company done anything note worthy since 2013?

I've seen some of these but they all seem to be operating quietly like some zero sum I live forever you die game. That is not going to work. The amount of money they have life extension should be encouraged as a college major. People still barely think about it as a serious avenue for their life direction.

well, the conditions of the society you live in also 100% affect you. So contributing to things you think will improve this is just as logical.

the whole point of obscene wealth is it allows you to shield yourself from many of the conditions of society that less wealthy people must suffer, at least as long as society itself allows this. The dying of old thing seems more a thing they should be concerned with.

Jeffrey Epstein is known for his interest in and material support for longevity research. Let’s see if he outlives Rockefeller

He was also known, among scientists, to be a charlatan and relatively stupid about the science (relative to his pretensions). So he probably wasn't allocating the funds very well.

> Let’s see if he outlives Rockefeller

lol

With all the money he has, he could even fund research in sexual pathology, suicide, and conspiracy prevention.

He proved that blackmailing the rich and powerful shortens one's lifespan.

One of the biggest arguments for radical wealth redistribution is just seeing what people do with their money.

And the pandemic and the billions that have been spent/redistributed in "relief" answered that question: watch Netflix and make TikToks.

There is a confounding factor there: deadly disease necessitating people staying home

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