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Why aren't the ultra-rich pouring the majority of their fortunes into immortality and gene editing given all the other advancements in the past decade?
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Okay, some people are spending some money, but I want some people's realistic thoughts on why it's not an all consuming investment priority...

With recent advancements in understanding artificial learning and large data analysis, we are making meaningful steps toward being able to understand and quantize the human brain. With more focused research and almost unlimited funding, we could theoretically manipulate brain structure, modify it, store it, and rebuild a human brain within our lifetimes (maybe 20 years).

With recent advancements in gene editing and data analysis, we are making meaningful steps in being able to edit genes as we choose, grow designer tissues, and edit our bodies. With more focused research and almost unlimited funding, we could do the mundane like regrow organs and reverse the effects of aging, but we could be also do the fantastic like change our fundamental characteristics (taller, faster, stronger, or hell - get weird with it and make the furries happy).

Given that a human can easily happily live on only a few million dollars in perpetuity, and given that the top 0.1% of the globe controls something on the order of $20 trillion, I feel like these goals are within reach. Bezos is 60, so a world-wide coordinated effort is within his lifetime. Instead private equity is throwing a billion a quarter at companies with a dubious plan to reach profitability. Why not market funds with "Invest with us and the fires from burning your cash might allow you to live forever".

Ive been struggling all weekend with the thought that we could reshape the phases of human life, and add so much more color to our world, but we're choosing to walk rather than run. Why would people choose to age on a yacht when they have a chance of rolling back time and getting an effective do-over? Why be an 80 year old billionaire instead of going back to your 20s/30s with a hundred million and all your knowledge?

As a middle class human, even the idea that the rich will live forever and it could be out of reach for me financially is still exciting, because they would be invested in the future of the planet whereas that doesn't seem like a strong motivator for them today...

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I think the biggest issue is simply that there's too different approaches with hard to figure out chances of success. You don't stay rich by gambling and research simply getting more funding only works in "What" fields (finding ruins, plants or deep sea fish) and Why fields (demographic analysis, behavior Research etc) not How fields (trying to understand the true nature of consciousness and death).

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6 months ago