Calico
Andre Willers
22 Oct 2013
Synopsis :
Calico : A major new human initiative in Anti-ageing
enterprise has been launched by Google .
Discussion :
1.Why the name Calico ?
See Appendix A . Calico cats are intimately related to
genetics .
2.Who and How much ?
See Appendix B .
Big names and a lot of money . Where is L . Craig Venter ?
3.What is already happening ?
A lot of data-mining on blogs , emails , etc .
I have noticed inordinate activity on http://andreswhy.blogspot.com/2012/11/prions-of-immortality-update-i.html
The same is occurring on any site associated with longevity
, genetics , etc .
One of the reasons why Google arrogated rights to certain
content on it’s platforms .
4.What is next ?
There are now three very big , very powerful Bio-Genetic
Champions in existence :
4.1 L.Craig Venter and the petrochemical industry .
4.2 Bill Gates Foundation and Public Health
4.3 Google and Anti-ageing .
5.Struldbugs :
Competition between these entities will hopefully avoid the
Struldbug Scenario .
See Appendix C
6.Singularity :
Even the process of creating Calico makes the Singularity
more likely by at least two orders of magnitude .
6.1 Co-opting all knowledge without a Hysterical Focus .
6.2 Forcing the examination of the effects of longevity
without crashing all systems in the run-up .
The Interesting Times are only just starting !
Regards
Andre
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Appendix A
Because genetic determination of some coat colors
in cats is linked to the X chromosome, calicoes are nearly always female.[2][4] Because of the
genetics involved,
calico males generally have impaired vitality and are almost always sterile.
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Appendix B
More details on
Google’s mysterious Calico project have emerged, revealing the
search giant intends on investing, at the very least, “hundreds of millions” in
the initiative. Announced last month, Calico is a project borne from Google’s
special Google X labs, with an endgame to take on major illnesses and aging.
The initiative is being led by ex-Genentech CEO Art Levinson, who also serves
as Apple chairman.
After some digging
around Silicon Valley, Fortune writer Dan Primack found that Calico is focused
on finding the root cause of various diseases and conditions, something many
companies today fail to focus on. Most importantly, however, the project wants
to address genetic causes of aging, and whether or not drugs can slow or even
stop them. At the very least, Google wants to see how the quality of life can
be improved for someone that’s in their 70s, 80s, etc.
For example, what if
you examined the genomes of thousands of healthy 90 year-olds from all parts of
the world? What genetic similarities do they have? Or, perhaps, what happens to
most of us that didn’t happen to them. Even if this didn’t result in longer
life, it perhaps could at least lead to an improved quality of life for folks
on the back nine.
The project will act more
as a research initiative rather than, as Primack puts it, “a biopharma startup
that will be in clinical trials within a couple of years.” Many smart pieces
are being moved around, and there’s very clearly a substantial amount of money
being put into the project. When Google puts resources into X lab projects, the
company tends to produce fascinating results—self-driving cars, balloon Internet,
Google Glass. With such a unique portfolio, and given what we know about
Calico, the search giant’s new project could prove to be Google’s most
important undertaking yet.
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Appendix C
The Struldbug Scenario
In Jonathan Swift's novel Gulliver's Travels, the name struldbrug is
given to those humans in the nation of Luggnagg who
are born seemingly normal, but are in fact immortal.
However, although struldbrugs do not die, they do nonetheless
continue aging.
Swift's work depicts the evil of immortality without eternal youth.
They are easily recognized by a red dot above their left eyebrow.
They are normal human beings until they reach the age of thirty, at which time
they become dejected. Upon reaching the age of eighty they become legally dead,
and suffer from many ailments including the loss of eyesight and the loss of
hair.
Struldbrugs were forbidden to own property:
As soon as they have
completed the term of eighty years, they are looked on as dead in law; their
heirs immediately succeed to their estates; only a small pittance is reserved
for their support; and the poor ones are maintained at the public charge. After
that period, they are held incapable of any employment of trust or profit; they
cannot purchase lands, or take leases; neither are they allowed to be witnesses
in any cause, either civil or criminal, not even for the decision of meers
(metes) and bounds.
Because:
Otherwise, as avarice is
the necessary consequence of old age, those immortals would in time become
proprietors of the whole nation, and engross the civil power, which, for want
of abilities to manage, must end in the ruin of the public.
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