<story><title>Google announces Calico, a new company that will focus on health and well-being</title><url>https://plus.google.com/+LarryPage/posts/Lh8SKC6sED1</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>ianstallings</author><text>I for one welcome my immortal transhumanist cyborg overlords.&lt;p&gt;But seriously, the fact that the first thing they do is start a corporation to control the science is not exactly comforting to me. Genentech is known for selling Avastin, their drug that fights cancer for $55k after they received harsh criticism for the proposed cost of $100k+&amp;#x2F;year.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bevacizumab#Costs&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Bevacizumab#Costs&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;I fear a future where &amp;quot;all men are created equal&amp;quot;, but only some can afford to become immortal and others cannot. We already see some of that now. Tons of ethical questions around this topic.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>jerf</author><text>Like with anything else, the question isn&amp;#x27;t whether the rich will be able to afford it, the question is how much progress can we make in making it cheap, how quickly, to get it to how many people?&lt;p&gt;It is a &lt;i&gt;moral imperative&lt;/i&gt; to make sure that short-sighted class warfare does not cut off the nose to spite the face by destroying this work under the guise of egalitarianism, because we can not turn on a dime and immediately grant it to everyone on day one. Yes, the rich will get it first. We need to ensure that market mechanisms remain functional and that they end up subsidizing the research the rest of us need. If we build gates and walls, they&amp;#x27;ll just end up captured in a heartbeat. Don&amp;#x27;t let them be built.&lt;p&gt;(Once the market has chewed on it and made it as cheap as possible, consider subsidizing it or something, but for the love of Life itself, don&amp;#x27;t break the market and destroy the research before it even happens. Seemingly suboptimal situations may need to be relatively briefly tolerated to make sure this happens at all.)</text></comment>
<story><title>Google announces Calico, a new company that will focus on health and well-being</title><url>https://plus.google.com/+LarryPage/posts/Lh8SKC6sED1</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>ianstallings</author><text>I for one welcome my immortal transhumanist cyborg overlords.&lt;p&gt;But seriously, the fact that the first thing they do is start a corporation to control the science is not exactly comforting to me. Genentech is known for selling Avastin, their drug that fights cancer for $55k after they received harsh criticism for the proposed cost of $100k+&amp;#x2F;year.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bevacizumab#Costs&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Bevacizumab#Costs&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;I fear a future where &amp;quot;all men are created equal&amp;quot;, but only some can afford to become immortal and others cannot. We already see some of that now. Tons of ethical questions around this topic.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>netrus</author><text>I for one fear a future where anyone can become immortal. This would result in unimaginable struggles for our ecosystem.&lt;p&gt;I always feel modern medicine should focus on raising life quality for as long as we are alive, rather than extending life itself. But of course this view is painted by the large number of old people living in inhuman conditions we currently have.</text></comment>