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SILICON VALLEY’S QUEST TO LIVE FOREVER


Gordo

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SILICON VALLEY’S QUEST TO LIVE FOREVERCan billions of dollars’ worth of high-tech research succeed in making death optional?
 
“I have the idea that aging is plastic, that it’s encoded,” he said. “If something is encoded, you can crack the code.” To growing applause, he went on, “If you can crack the code, you can hack the code!” It’s a big ask: more than a hundred and fifty thousand people die every day, the majority of aging-related diseases. Yet Yun believes, he told me, that if we hack the code correctly, “thermodynamically, there should be no reason we can’t defer entropy indefinitely. We can end aging forever.”


 
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Yes, I wonder if the article will result in any new participants here. The article also mentions mTOR and eunuchs which you were recently talking about, but I don't think they got it right on the later...

 

At any rate, it's encouraging to see so many brilliant minds and $billions at work trying to solve the problem of age related disease and decline. I have no doubts that they will make tangible progress over the next decade, if nothing else, at least to treat or prevent some existing diseases, and at least partially rejuvenate the body or purge damaged cells. Baby steps perhaps, but heading in the right direction.

 

In other news, Aubrey is no longer polyamorous, a true sign of his decline. ;)

(the media can't resist)

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Having lived through such many such periods of high hopes before, in various fields, I tend to not get excited by such anymore. I can clearly see the pattern, a mix of the young enthusiasts, journalists eager to jump on a trendy new wave, and scammers ever alert to a new opportunity. Real breakthroughs tend not to happen like this.

 

Maybe most here are too young to remember, but I have distinct memories of the enormous hopes that started off a whole industry - biotech in the 80's. Shiny new world of hope. How sorry the results have been. Sure, many companies were established and survive to this day - like Biogen - but what of it? A few super expensive drugs, mostly for niche conditions, and when closely examined not always effective. But the big picture? Super disappointing, and really a failure. Didn't come within a country mile of the initial promise. Many such boomlets along the way which - this time for sure, pinkie promise - of curing cancer which we've been told of an imminent victory going on almost 50 years now (angiogenesis drugs hype, anyone remember that?). Massive failure. Then when the genome was sequenced in the new millenium, we were promised a revolution in medicine that would tackle disease on an individual level and result in a panoply of amazing drugs and treatments. Well, that was almost 20 years ago, and it's another case of overpromise and underdeliver, or more acurately, not deliver at all.

 

The same can be said about any number of technologies, like the always 10 years into the future of fusion power generation, with regularly scheduled excitement periods that mostly result in a flood of money poured into the next batch of overpromising companies, and the suckers get taken, and it all ends up in tears and sometimes handcuffs.

 

I am not doubting the sincerity of most - we'd all like to live in the shiny future - but a good knowledge of history provides a cautionary perspective. The genuine breakthroughs are far more subtle and often unheralded. The loud breakthroughs, like the DNA helix discovery, are always accompanied by a very characteristic wave of hype and hope and speculative ventures, and that signature is a big, big tell - yep, another Giant Nothingburger. 

Big on PROMISES, dismal on DELIVERY.

 

This article has the exact same signature of Hype & Hope = Nothingburger.

 

Now, I sincerely hope I'm wrong, but experience teaches me that alas this is more of the same old, same old. But, best of luck anyway!

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Yes, I wonder if the article will result in any new participants here. The article also mentions mTOR and eunuchs which you were recently talking about, but I don't think they got it right on the later...

 

At any rate, it's encouraging to see so many brilliant minds and $billions at work trying to solve the problem of age related disease and decline. I have no doubts that they will make tangible progress over the next decade, if nothing else, at least to treat or prevent some existing diseases, and at least partially rejuvenate the body or purge damaged cells. Baby steps perhaps, but heading in the right direction.

 

 

Yes I remember the thread on sex restriction, maybe that captured the attention. Also, the journalist was mentioning an interrupted reasoning on a page here on the website, maybe it should be checked. why it seems to be so.

All those wealthy guys remind me a little of Gengis Khan and Joseph Stalin. Both built up immense empires and both were overly annoyed, at the end of their lives, that they should relinquish the above empires and kick the bucket like any other common mortals. Both tried to find out some methods which could grant longevity. The Google cofounder, who built an economic empire, maybe had a similar attitude.

Of course those guys with their wealth may help and develop something, but I don't know if it will be affordable to the common mortals.

 

And I share much of Tombavoider's skepticism.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Silicon Valley continues the Quest - The age blood test looks interesting.


https://pharmaphorum.com/news/billionaire-jim-mellon-invests-ai-project-tackle-ageing/


Billionaire biotechnology investor Jim Mellon has unveiled an investment in an ambitious new venture which seeks to tackle ageing and age-related diseases.


Insilico Medicine is a big data analytics company which says its mission is to ‘extend healthy longevity’ paper demonstrating the ability to predict the chronological age of the patient using a simple blood test was published in Aging, which the company says became the second most popular paper in the journal’s history.


Link to download paper on this page http://www.aging-us.com/article/100968 


However the company can be accused of indulging in ‘quackery’ by collaborating on a new diet supplement Ageless Cell marketed by another company, LifeExtension.  They claim Ageless Cell – costing $27.00 for four bottles –  can help ‘combat aging’, but as a diet supplement, the product doesn’t require the same evidence based required by the FDA for prescription medicines.


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Nice, they used neural nets to determine "The 5 most important markers for predicting human chronological age: albumin, glucose, alkaline phosphatase, urea and erythrocytes."

 

I'll have to study those markers more. The neat thing is that they created a website where you can plug in your own blood test results and their AI will predict your biological age:

http://aging.ai/

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You can save yourself the effort. After spending a good 10 minutes filling out that whole stupid form, I clicked "Submit" and got exactly NOTHING. Another company long on promises, delivering another Nothingburger. They do "collaborate" in selling supplements that promise eternal youth - but of course. Same as it ever was.

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You can save yourself the effort. After spending a good 10 minutes filling out that whole stupid form, I clicked "Submit" and got exactly NOTHING. Another company long on promises, delivering another Nothingburger. They do "collaborate" in selling supplements that promise eternal youth - but of course. Same as it ever was.

 

That's weird, because I filled it out (I used the version with the most variables, but it didn't require me to fill in every one) and it estimated my biological age to be "27".  I don't know what it does in cases where you don't supply a value, I'm guessing it just uses the middle of the reference range.  I was using chrome browser - not sure if that makes any difference.

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