Silicon Valley top guns see the promise of immortality as big business

Living forever is a booming business. People have been trying to live forever for…basically forever.  But cheating death has always been a particular obsession for the rich. Ancient Chinese emperor Qin Shi Huang took mercury pills in his quest for immortality during the third century BCE, while Egyptian Pharaos had their remains mummified to prepare for the after life – only to have powders made from their crushed up bones consumed by the likes of European royalty seeking health remedies in the 16^th and 17^th centuries. In more recent years, elites have experimented with young blood transfusions and syringes filled with the cells of fetal lambs, which they’ve had injected into their buttocks.  

The present-day pursuit of physical immortality – or, at the very least, a substantially extended lifespan – is a booming business.  Google has an aging research venture called Calico; tech titans like Peter Thiel and Jeff Besos are investors in start-ups focused on longevity; and entrepreneurs like bulletproof founder Dave Asprey, who has publicly declared his goal of living to 180, have built empires around their passion for biohacking. Many Silicon Valley types also ascribe to the idea of singularity, popularized by Google director of engineering Raymond Kurzweil, which holds that by 2045, AI and biotechnology will have rendered humankind effectively immortal.
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Photo credit, 256 year old Chinese man: snopes.com 

Is immortality possible? Google's Calico project is secretly working on it.  Four years after it started, there are still many questions revolving around Google’s startup health venture, Calico. It has guaranteed many great things like beating age growth but until now, there is no word about its latest development. The innovative approach of Google to venture on health gave people high hopes. At present time, the ambitious mission has stonewalled every information from their side.

Calico is concentrated on comprehending aging and how to defeat it. California Life Company or most commonly known as Calico is a bold idea, which aims to increase the lifespan of humans. The startup venture promised to tackle everything from Alzheimer’s to Parkinson’s to cancer.

According to Larry Page, the CEO of Google, “Illness and aging affect all our families. With some longer term, moonshot thinking around healthcare and biotechnology, I believe we can improve millions of lives.” READ MORE

PayPal co-founder and former CEO defies aging. Peter Thiel, the Pay Pal co-founder whose $500,000 investment in Facebook turned 1,000 times over to $500 million when the company went public in 2012 is also throwing his hat into the ring so to speak.

He’s funding dozens of scientists through his nonprofit, Breakout Labs, which aims to support early-stage companies that push the boundaries of what’s possible, and directly through personal donations to institutions and individuals. READ MORE

 

Amazon founder and the world's richest person Jeff Bezos backs Silicon Valley scientist working on a cure for aging.  Of the many people currently involved in searching for ways to slow down or delay the effects of growing older, Nathaniel David might actually have a shot.

David is president of Unity Biotechnology, one of a slew of companies taking part in the current zeitgeist of aging research. Founded in 2009 by David and a group of professors in the biological sciences, Unity Biotechnology’s research focuses in particular on senescent cells — older cells that have stopped dividing and appear to be one of the causes of the onset of the diseases associated with aging.

The company, based out of Brisbane, California, has received more than $300 million in funding, including from $85 million raised after going public this past May. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel are also investors. today the company’s market cap is $700 million. READ MORE

The company making fake meats made Bill Gates, Leonardo Di Caprio and other investors richer when its value soared to $3.8 billion. The company’s business and Hollywood celebrity backers, including Microsoft Corp. co-founder Bill Gates and actor Leonardo DiCaprio, helped explain the investor zeal, along with a growing consumer appetite for meat alternatives.

Consumers are looking for more plant-based meat alternatives because of concerns about health, animal welfare and the environment. The company, Beyond Meat, is tapping into that demand by offering beef-like versions of the meat products such burgers and hotdogs. READ MORE

There's big money in the egg-donation business.  Egg donation is designed to help families who are having trouble conceiving. The process involves taking eggs from one woman, fertilizing the viable ones, and then transferring them either to the aspiring mother, or to a surrogate, in the hope of achieving pregnancy. In practice, it’s often more complicated.

The first US child conceived from a donated egg was born in 1984. Since then, the procedure has grown into a thriving industry. Demand from aspiring parents, along with a dearth of regulations, have spawned matchmaking agencies that offer to help parents find the perfect young woman whose eggs will result in the equally perfect child.

Donating eggs can be lucrative, with agencies paying as much as $50,000 per cycle in some cases. READ MORE

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