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In the Bible many live super long, to like 300 or even 969 etc. Scholars have different explanations for this and speculation on how time was measured differently, but when you read it, you can’t help but wonder if something was crucially different about humans that allowed for these long lifespans. Or wonder when exactly these people died...

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founding

Really interesting, I'd never come across the Methuselah Foundation although a bunch of what was in this interview sounded remotely familiar. The piece about medicine that will kill mice but works for humans is really interesting. I wonder if we're on the cusp of a medical revolution just based on re-doing old research that 'failed' but is later re-performed on human tissue.

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“....at some point, some country is going to get the idea that we can't afford all these old people. That it's time to encourage them to move off this mortal coil, as a point of responsibility to leave.”

That’s the unspoken premise every time a politician whines about Social Security being too expensive, so I agree with him there.

I respect Gobel’s point of view a lot. If Methuselah succeeds it will be life-changing for an untold number of people. Although I am curious about how they’ll handle their technology patents. We already have a variety of health disasters that could have been eased, but aren’t, because rich countries refuse to make their work open-source. For Methuselah to succeed as a species-wide public health success, its tech will have to be open to all. That’s pretty incompatible with the average investor’s philosophy.

And the tech itself is only half the battle, which Gobel seems pretty aware of. Technocratic utopians are always yelling about how once X technology is created, that will be enough to completely transform society for the better. Which...no. The human element of choosing how and why to use tech will never be engineered out. It’s not as catchy to admit that tech is just a tool, and at the mercy of ethics and morals like anything else. It’s not as catchy to admit that every new advancement is just another chance to relive the Prometheus myth, and all the debates it entails. But it’s the truth.

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David is doing fine work. 3D organ printing has come a long way since my involvement in the space 10 years ago. His comment about organ transplantation rings true as well. As you may know I am a heart transplant survivor and have to deal with a regimen of medications designed to keep my body from rejecting the organ placed into it. It is good to see that, while there are so many flakes and flim flams making a noise in the world today, that there are still good people focused on making the world a better place.

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founding

Very interesting! Thank you for sharing this.

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