Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Apple Chairman Art Levinson to Head Google Spinoff Dedicated to Solving Age-Related Health Issues
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
This is probably related to Google hiring Ray Kurzweil, the poster boy for the Transhumanist movement.
Kurzweil predicts human level AI by 2045 which will bring about human 'immortality' about the same time.
I see this as totally feasible when you look at the data and can't wait to see what happens.
Death: RIP
Kurzweil predicts human level AI by 2045 which will bring about human 'immortality' about the same time.
I see this as totally feasible when you look at the data and can't wait to see what happens.
Death: RIP
Last edited:
Exactly why this venture will fail or require deep pockets. The in-house R&D will not be able to successfully innovate and generate new IP so long as everything is valuation driven. It's the curse of big pharma -- where bean counters dictate programs and project goals (not even mentioning internal politics...).
Early Genentech, where Art came from, was all about investing in interesting research first, then application and value generation second. These ideas often do not intertwine, and after the biotech collapse that mantra was gutted. As you mentioned, this venture is to make money, so it's going to be a pure "bean counter" profit driven enterprise. Even without the unfettered research, companies can still lumber along -- but that's because they're diversified. The aging field is still quite nascent and has a lot of legwork and "crazy" non-value generating research to be done first -- it's not quite ready for profit milking.
Unless compared to accidental death, or death by crime, natural death is a misnomer. Death is the result of a failure or wearing out of an organ or system in our body. If defective or worn-out organs or parts of our body could be replaced or repaired, there would be no more 'natural' death, until our brain, which is reportedly good for at least 5000 years, were to die.
So eventually it will come down to repairing/replacing (or even re-growing) body parts, and then where should we draw the line? 100, 150, 250 or even 500 yrs? That debate would become philosophical rather quickly. Yet this is an issue, future generations will have to deal with, at some time.
The qualifier for wanting to live longer is surely continuing good health, and that will become possible in the not-too-distant future.
I am shocked. SHOCKED I tell you. Businesses are in it for money? That's just crazy talk. I am SO glad you schooled me on that.
I'm not naive about anything. I never suggested google's spinoff wouldn't be in it for money. Of course - since no actual details about the company are in that press release - we have no way of knowing what exactly they will or won't be doing. Whether they will operate it as non-profit or not-for-profit, etc. Until then - someone making a claim that google is just in it for more customer data to sell for marketing purposes is just bashing google for the sake of bashing google.Last I heard - the pharmas were doing pretty well financially. And that has little to do with customer data and everything to do with patents and high profit margins. As an example.
What makes you think the extra time will allow you to fix what was done to you? You think the powers that be will suddenly decide to be more free with things? More likely you will still be locked in your cage, only have to suffer through it longer.
I see that Kurzweil is earning his keep at Google...
Also sensationalist headline much?
I don't find the headline sensationalist at all - in fact it's quiet dull. Especially considering how much Art Levinson is ruining Apple.
Yes Google and MS are both into blue sky type research to some extent Facebook is too. It really makes Apple appear greedy which of course they are. If it cannot be monetized in a few years Apple just doesn't do it.
I am shocked. SHOCKED I tell you. Businesses are in it for money? That's just crazy talk. I am SO glad you schooled me on that.
Last I heard - the pharmas were doing pretty well financially. And that has little to do with customer data and everything to do with patents and high profit margins. As an example.
Huh?
That is Googles business model - compile data and sell it for marketing purposes.
Everything Google does from Android to self-driving cars is designed to drive data collection to sell to advertisers.
So they can never do something else? And with a spinoff company? Many conglomerates have diverse companies that do different things in the pursuit of profit
And how do you get better at "situational awareness"?
By practicing flying. Manually. Especially landings.
It was a bright, clear, sunny day in SF on the day Asiana 214 crashed.
Light wind, > 10 mile visibility, no rain, with no wind shear reported or forecast.
And, most importantly, no evidence of any mechanical failure on the flight recorder.
Incompetence? "Situational awareness lapse"?
Flip a coin.
There are people getting surgeries via a virtual surgeon who are miles away from the robotics they are controlling. And I am sure that before many tech advances there are naysayers and people who will fear what might happen.
I also think, since you have no true insight into the crash other that what you've read or think you've read - that you can't speak to someone's skill level. Pretty ballsy of you in fact....
No, not really. Situational awareness does not require quotes, as it is one of the cornerstone aviation concepts introduced to every student pilot in primary flight training. Situational awareness applies in all phases of flight. It involves knowing what is going on with your airplane and around you at all times. The flight crew in this accident apparently did not recognize that they were below their approach altitude and entering a stalled condition. Call it incompetence if you like, but pilots will call it a failure of situational awareness, as the flight crew on this airplane would certainly have known how to recover from those circumstances had they recognized them sooner. Practice has nothing to do with it. By the time a person gets to their ATP they have thousands of hours of flying all sorts of airplanes, and all the knowledge and practice required to operate the equipment competently. The enemy of all that knowledge and practice is a loss of situational awareness. It can be caused by tiredness or distraction. Another issue the NTSB will probably be investigating is communications among the flight crew, and how that might have contributed to the loss of situational awareness.
What I mean is, this company might cure headaches, colds, cancer - but they won't regrow organs because your existing one is of old age. I don't see prolonging life past the natural cycle - just making you live long enough to get there.
Agree. One of the facts that has already come out of the investigation is that the crew, although experienced in other planes, had very little flight time in the 777. Right stuff, wrong plane?
You don't understand how aging works. An anti-aging therapy wouldn't hang you in a purgatory of chronically bad health associated with end-of-life. It would allow someone to be a 30 year old in health when they're 60. Furthermore since most of the "scary" human diseases (cancer, AD, diabetes) are, in general, diseases of aging, we may very well decrease our healthcare expenditures with an anti-aging therapy. Finally it would allow people to make greater contributions to society. If you think that it takes roughly 20 years just to graduate from college + another 10-15 years to specialize in a field (professional, etc) you only have about 20-30 years of solid output before your aging body forces your retirement. So with an anti-aging therapy these people may be able to double or triple their output with the same time/money investment.
I think no. The pilot's hours in the 777 are likely not to be a major factor in the accident. Pilots transition from one aircraft to another all the time without driving them into the ground, and this captain was not only a very experienced pilot but a flight instructor besides. The failure analysis in the mass media will be quite different than what will come out of the NTSB. What is likely to be found in the official investigation as a primary cause is the crew's failure to recognize their situation quickly enough to correct it.
C
champ01
Guest
We don't need people to go into space. I rather have many robots do the exploration.
----------
Exactly.
Which also concludes that religion in this regard is acting very disrespectful to whats so great about life. (with all the hell, heaven nonsense)