Fresh from killing Gawker, Paypal co-founder, Facebook investor and Hulk Hogan lawsuit sponsor, billionaire Peter Thiel is still out for blood. He wants to suck the blood out of young people in Silicon Valley or anyone out there who wants to volunteer. The man is actually putting all his money to good use, keeping Death at bay.
What does Peter Thiel need youthful blood for? He is currently funding research for life extension or increased longevity. Thiel thinks that the transfusion of youthful blood into older bodies has the potential to extend human life. A firm known as Ambrosia is currently doing young-blood infusion trials and charging participant $8,000 per session. Quite vampiric, but still a valid point for research. If valid, younger people could help extend the lives of the elderly (relatives or otherwise) through sale or donations of some of their blood.
Ethical questions do arise in Mr. Thiel’s theory. If successful, it could create a new black market of young blood forcefully or cheaply extracted from the youth resulting in a vampiric world between the poor youth and the wealthy but aging clientele. It could go so far as using young blood just for beauty purposes to keep 30-40 something celebrities and important personalities looking young.
Dystopian vampiric futures aside, that’s not the only medical research going on in Silicon Valley. If you were as rich as any of Silicon Valley’s billionaires, you could spare a buck or two on such research in order to keep enjoying those dollars, keep your businesses up and keep people working. If they manage to discover The Fountain of Youth along the way, the better for everyone (that is, if they share).
“Why are tech leaders interested in immortality? It’s a combination of scientism and extraordinary wealth… Are Silicon Valley CEOs investing millions into physical immortality any different from the fantastically rich and all-powerful emperors in the Tang dynasty of China who died taking mercury-based elixirs of never-ending life? Time will tell.”
— Adam Gollner, author, The Book of Immortality
Technology in Silicon Valley isn’t limited to computers and mobile devices. As we all know by now, they’re dabbling in new technologies for transportation as they scramble to develop the perfect autonomous vehicle such as Google’s driverless car as well as new tech for mass transportation like Hyperloop. They’re also busy with drone technologies for the military and other purposes. The field of medicine is no exception, just not as publicized as other fields. But since electronics is at the forefront of Silicon Valley’s businesses, they treat the human body as something that can be hacked or tweaked.
“Biology has become an engineering project, and a lot of tech people are engineers… The idea of extending people’s healthy years used to be a pipe dream… But it is no longer a crazy idea. It’s not something that’s unattainable. Society has the tools to make our lives longer and healthier,”
— Sonia Arrison, author, “100 Plus”
Imagine if people like Steve Jobs were still with us. Winning his battle with pancreatic cancer due to some groundbreaking research. What could Apple have come up with next instead of a headphone jack-less iPhone 7 which looks a lot similar to the iPhone 6? The Mac’s latest innovation would probably be something other than their new touch bar which Dell has already dabbled with years ago.
Death is inevitable, but it doesn’t make it less terrifying. What if atheists were right and man can expect nothing after death but oblivion? Death may be a fact of life everyone needs to accept, but not everyone does, including this author who would prefer to roam the world incorporeal instead of purgatory, hell, heaven or worse total non-existence. Steve Jobs may have accepted his fate, but some of his peers don’t.
“…The way people deal with aging is a combination of acceptance and denial… They accept there is nothing they can do about it, and deny it’s going to happen to them.”
— Peter Thiel, MIT Technology Review
“Death makes me very angry… It doesn’t make any sense to me. Death has never made any sense to me. How can a person be there and then just vanish, just not be there?”
— Larry Ellison, Oracle co-founder
“I just hope to live long enough not to die,”
— Bill Marris, Alphabet GW chief executive
Then what’s left is to extend one’s life for as long as possible in order for that person to find meaning and realize his/her purpose as well as to fulfill their bucket lists and leave the world satisfied. If Thiel is correct and Ambrosia does succeed, it’s going to be a long, bloody future.