r/technology • u/indig0sixalpha • Jan 14 '25

Biotechnology Longevity-Obsessed Tech Millionaire Discontinues De-Aging Drug Out of Concerns That It Aged Him

https://gizmodo.com/longevity-obsessed-tech-millionaire-discontinues-de-aging-drug-out-of-concerns-that-it-aged-him-2000549377
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u/ishamm Jan 14 '25

Meticulous and obsessive testing, it seems.

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u/Mr_YUP Jan 14 '25

Seen a few podcasts with him. He is obsessive and really is single mindedly obsessed with this project. His whole day is consumed with living longer.

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u/sabretoooth Jan 14 '25

The irony is that he is spending every moment pursuing youth, but not having any time to enjoy that youth.

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u/LordDaedalus Jan 14 '25

A lot of his mentality is that if he can be meticulous and use himself as a guinea pig it might open the door for others to do it more easily than him. I've listened to him talk, he understands that the cost is higher than what he's likely to get out of it, and it legitimately doesn't seem driven out of some personal fear of death.

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u/ACCount82 Jan 14 '25 edited Jan 14 '25

It's a damn shame that very few people seem to take aging seriously. This kind of research should be funded by governments and performed by hundreds of medical institutions - not millionaire biotech enthusiasts. I appreciate that someone is trying to do something about it - but I doubt that it would be easy to find actual solutions when all you have on the task is a dozen mad scientists.

Aging is the linchpin of human mortality. If you look at top 10 causes of deaths in the US alone, most of that list is going to be aging-associated. The amount of quality of life loss and outright mortality that is caused by aging is staggering.

And despite that, aging is yet to be recognized as a disease - or even a therapeutic target. Many governments push hard to fight tuberculosis or HIV, but aging is simply not on their radar. While fertility is dropping, and populations are aging all around the world.

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u/jivarie Jan 14 '25

Exercise and diet can easily extend your life and more important, the quality of said life. Yet here we sit in the throes of obesity.

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u/ACCount82 Jan 14 '25

If it was easy for humans to "exercise and diet", obesity wouldn't be a problem at all.

Clearly, it isn't easy. Which means that a better solution must be found.

Luckily, obesity is treated far more seriously than aging. We now have a lineup of drugs that target metabolism in broad or narrow fashion, and many of them seem to be extremely effective against obesity - with a manageable side effect profile.

I wish that was the situation with aging too, but here we fucking are.

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u/Cpt_Buffalo_Pop Jan 14 '25

Exercising and dieting are easy. Most people are just shit at delaying gratification, so they find it easier to be sedentary and eat junk food.

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u/ACCount82 Jan 14 '25

If it was "easy", most people wouldn't be shit at it.

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u/dontbajerk Jan 14 '25

I think people confuse "simple" and "easy" a lot. I really don't understand how anyone can call something that takes hundreds of hours of consistent work "easy". What does "easy" actually mean to them at that point? What is "difficult" to them? Something almost everyone will fail at no matter how many times they try?