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Comment by SudarshanP | Hacker News Reader

I was surprised to see that an entrepreneur like Peter Thiel could just go on stage and openly talk about possibilities life extension at a top university like Stanford. Is it common in the Silicon Valley to just go around talking about life extension as an "important business opportunity"? I have heard Aubrey de Grey talking about escape velocity of longevity etc. But I am strangely happy as well startled that one could just walk into a class room and talk about life extension. You guys must be living in paradise ;-). I admire that liberty more than the feasibility or not of life extension itself.

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(Assuming you're not based in the US...)

This has become a very common topic of conversation in the US (not just Silicon Valley) among engineers, tech-enthusiasts, and academics in the past decade or so. I think it has a lot to do with Ray Kurzweil's "The Age of Spiritual Machines" -- at least that was around the time I noticed even regular people talking about this subject without fear of being labeled an eccentric.

There are still communities where this topic is not openly discussed. A friend in the medical field told me once it's taboo to talk about radical life extension in many sectors of the healthcare industry -- which I find very sad. There are also religious communities in the US that this doesn't sit well with.

Overall I'd say we're not far away from mainstream acceptance of these ideas -- even among the medical establishment and religious communities. As for top universities -- this has been a topic of conversation for quite some time.

I am from Bangalore. If I went around telling this... they'll probably label me a crackpot. Even the geeks around me wud probably consider this too crazy to be real. I will check out and see how the world around me reacts.

Really? I find it hard to understand why <em>anyone</em> would consider the idea of life extension as taboo. Wouldn't it be safe to assume that almost everyone, irrespective of your religious or other inclinations, desire to live a long and quality life?

In America, non academics are increasingly being hired to teach a course as an adjunct professor (or an adjunct assistant professor): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Professors_in_the_United_States...

I taught a course at an NYU grad program as an adjunct once, and was surprised at how much freedom professors had around subject matter. I was expecting someone to review my curriculum in detail, but in actuality I just had a single conversation with the department chair on the general parameters of my course and that was it.

It was very liberating... in general, the department will depend largely on student complaints and reviews to evaluate your performance. Plus usually someone from the department will sit in on your class at some point. Other than that, you're on your own!

> But I am strangely happy as well startled that one could just walk into a class room and talk about life extension.

I'm confused.

Why wouldn't one be able to do something like that? What would stop it from happening?

>Why wouldn't one be able to do something like that? What would stop it from happening?

A board/committee or whatever that oversaw what was happening at the university. They could have censored it as being too taboo. I've heard a lot of fuss about resistance to Stem Cell Research/Creationist textbooks etc. But as another commenter said, the speakers are a lot more autonomous and free. Nice to hear.

Thiel is a little unusual in being heavily involved in transhumanist stuff.

There's a ready market for eternal life. What's the point of being really really rich if you die like everyone else?

"It seemed to Leon that the problems faced by immortal quadrillionaires in vats wouldn't be that different from those facing mere mortals."

See: http://craphound.com/walh/Cory_Doctorow_-_With_a_Little_Help...

Excellent!

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