Original production of "Polypeptide Chain".Written by Wang JinxingImmortality is always a topic of reverie.
On November 28, Munger, a long-time partner of investment giant Warren Buffett, passed away at the age of 99, attracting widespread attention around the world.
Although Munger's lifespan is much longer than the average life expectancy, another question arises as to when the "dream of immortality" that tech giants or the top rich are keen on will come true.
From ancient emperors seeking mystical potions for immortality, to medieval alchemy, to modern tech giants investing in cutting-edge biotechnology.
Now, that dream seems getting closer and closer to reality.
One|Big tuyere
The super-rich are following suit
While ordinary people are still trying to survive, billionaires are already implementing the matter of immortality.
In today's technology-driven era, immortality may no longer be an ethereal myth, but:becomeA new arena for billionaires, and huge amounts of money and influence are their most important reliance.
Recently, L Catterton, the world's largest top private equity investment institution focusing on the consumer industry, won about 48RMB1.5 billion strategic acquisition of Thorne Healthtech, the world's leading AI healthcare technology company***.
Founded in 1984 as a leader in the development of innovative solutions for personalized health, Thorne Health Tech provides actionable advice primarily through the unique brand Thorne and the AI-driven technology platform Onegevity, aiming to help individuals take a proactive approach to improving and maintaining their health through personalized, science-based testing and solutions.
By combining its proprietary multi-omics database, artificial intelligence (AI), and digital health content with science-based nutritional supplements, Thorne Health Tech provides a complete, closed-loop health system.
Investing in the life and health sector has become a popular choice for technology and investment giants.
Earlier this year, Alibaba announced a series of new investments in digital health and medical technology, including a major footprint in AI-driven diagnosis and treatment solutions and telehealth services. It aims to integrate advanced technology into traditional medical care and provide users with more personalized and efficient health management solutions.
Also this year, Calico, a longevity research company under Google's parent company Alphabet, partnered with a well-known pharmaceutical company to research and develop new anti-aging drugs.
In addition, the investment team led by Bezos, the founder of Amazon, has invested $3 billion in Altos Labs, whose research direction is to restore the health level of cells by reprogramming them, so as to extend the life span of humans.
The hottest company at the moment, OpenAI, Sam Altman, the father of ChatGPT, is also unwilling to be lonely and invests 1$800 million to set up a company Retro Biosciences to research anti-aging.
Li Ka-shing began to lay out the pharmaceutical industry as early as 1999, and he joined hands with the chairman of Hong Kong New World Group, Zheng Yutong, who is also a big man, invested 40 billion yuan to establish the Chinese medicine port and start the road of pharmaceutical investment.
Since then, Li Ka-shing has continued to expand its investment in the pharmaceutical sector, including the establishment of HUTCHMED, the investment in Tong Ren Tang, the donation to the establishment of the Li Ka Shing Biomedical and Health Sciences Centre, and the joint venture with Nestlé to develop the best Chinese medicine for gastrointestinal diseases.
In 2017, Li Ka-shing simply directly invested 200 million Hong Kong dollars to develop and sell the "elixir of life", the main ingredients of such drugs NMN and NR, which were once popular among the public and the capital market.
And most people only know Zhong's Nongfu Spring, but they don't know that the pharmaceutical and biological company "Wantai Bio", which accounts for 1 4 of its net worth, with the financial support of Zhong, Wantai Bio focuses on the research and development of vaccines, and China's first bivalent HPV vaccine with independent intellectual property rights comes from this.
After combing, we found that the core assets of Zhong Sui can be summarized into four main lines: vaccine testing, beverage consumption, health care products and real estate, and the health care business is the core of Zhong Sui's capital empire, from vaccine testing for diseases, to health care products for physical fitness, to beverages that supplement the substances needed by the human body, all of which are laid out around human health. Zhong has also mentioned several times that he will focus on the field of health.
Obviously, from personalized medicine to artificial intelligence to gene editing, health and longevity have become a new track for global capital, and for many wealthy people, they are already trying it themselves, among which the more famous one is "burning money to continue life".
Billionaire Brian Johnson has invested heavily in his quest for eternal youth and has taken a series of extreme measures. Including trying the three-generation exchange transfusion plan, **rejuvenation**, and strict daily life management, etc.
In addition, he invests at least $2 million a year in hiring a top team to monitor his health and takes a series of measures to improve his physiological indicators, with the aim of staying young forever.
At the same time, PayPal founder Peter Thiel and Oracle founder Larry Ellison and others are also trying to reverse aging through means such as transfusion. In order to realize his long-cherished wish for eternal life, the billionaire David Rockefeller even replaced 6 hearts one after another.
David Rockefeller eventually lived to be 102 years old
It is rumored that the special drug taken by Li Ka-shing is as high as 1.56 million yuan, which can slow down the aging of body cells, although it cannot prolong life, but it can repair the body.
Stanley Ho and Lau Luanxiong prolong life expectancy through high-cost medical interventions, such as hyperbaric oxygen chambers** and organ transplants. There is a ** report that when he was 87 years old, Stanley Ho accidentally fell and injured his head and was hospitalized, and he would be given brain injections every day during his hospitalization.
It is said that this needle contains a very precious brain tonic hormone, which can repair brain cells and prevent functional deterioration, and a needle costs 860,000 yuan. The cost of 11 years of life is as high as 1.5 billion Hong Kong dollars.
And Pan Shiyi also claimed to have eaten a "elixir of longevity" developed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and found that his nails also grew quickly.
For now, immortality is still a fragment of science fiction or mythology, but the current technology has become closer to "immortality".
IIImmortality Technique
What step has it been?
In the more than 6 million years of human history, the search for "immortality" has never stopped.
In fact, modern technology has made a series of remarkable advances. In recent years, research in these fields, from gene editing to stem cells** to biopharmaceuticals, is opening up new possibilities for extending human lifespan and improving the quality of health.
On July 12, 2023, scientists from Harvard Medical School, the University of Maine, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) presented for the first time a groundbreaking study that could reprogram cells to a more youthful state. And before that, it could only be achieved through strong genes.
The findings were published in the journal Aging under the title "Chemically Induced Reprogramming to Reverse Cellular Aging." The research team screened for molecules that could combine to reverse cellular senescence and rejuvenate human cells, and successfully identified six chemical combinations.
These combinations are able to reverse the transcriptome age of cells in less than a week, returning them to a youthful state. Researchers at Harvard have previously demonstrated that cellular senescence can be reversed without causing uncontrolled cell growth through specific yamanaka genes.
Positive results have been observed in studies of the optic nerve, brain tissue, kidneys, and muscles, including improved vision and longer lifespan in mice.
In April this year, scientists also achieved positive results in reversing blindness in monkeys, and now, the gene** that can reverse age is preparing for clinical trials.
The reprogrammed chemical combination can restore the damage to senescent cells
***phys org
In 2020, a group of researchers at the University of California, San Diego, unraveled the important mechanisms behind the cellular senescence process, and after identifying two different directions that cells follow during senescence, the researchers genetically manipulated these processes to extend the lifespan of cells.
In April of this year, the research was further expanded to use synthetic biology to design a solution that would prevent cells from reaching the normal levels of deterioration associated with aging, and successfully extended the lifespan of cells through synthetic biology.
By genetically modifying the genetic circuits that control cellular senescence, cells are subjected to periodic switching between two different senescence mechanisms, avoiding a single senescence state for long periods of time. This approach resulted in an 82% increase in the lifespan of yeast cells compared to normal, setting a new record for prolonging life through genetic and chemical interventions.
Altos Labs, which is supported by Jeff Bezos, the former richest man in the world, and Yuri Milner, Russia's richest man, has also achieved great results, and since its establishment more than a year ago, Altos Labs has published important articles on reprogramming and aging in top journals.
Earlier this year, Altos Labs researchers published their research in the journal Nature**, along with international research teams from Spain, China, Japan, the United States, and Luxembourg.
A method to isolate senescent cells from mice was proposed and it was demonstrated that these senescent cells cause inflammation and prevent skeletal muscle regeneration even in juvenile mice, further confirming the idea that removing senescent cells contributes to anti-aging.
In addition, researchers at the University of Exeter tested the potential of hydrogen sulfide (H2S) as an anti-aging target. They administered Caenorhabditis elegans with a small dose of a mitochondria-targeted sulfur donor (AP39) and found that AP39 improved mitochondrial integrity, promoted cellular energy production, and extended the healthy lifespan of the worms
A UCLA team conducted a large-scale comparative epigenomic analysis of more than 15,000 samples from 348 mammalian species and found that DNA methylation patterns correlated with the maximum lifespan of animals. This study provides new insights into understanding the differences in lifespan between different species.
But in any case, "immortality" in the biological sense is still relatively far away, and in the past two years, "immortality" in the physical sense seems to be quite popular.
Musk uploaded his brain to the cloud and talked to a virtual version of himself. It is reported that this was mentioned by Musk in response to a question from Dogecoin co-founder Billy Marcus on Twitter, saying: "This has already been done. ”
Recently, Musk's brain-computer interface company neuralink recently disclosed a new round of $43 million in financing, the company is planning to start human trials of brain-computer interfaces, the short-term goal is to help paralyzed patients and other patients regain mobility, but his longer-term goal is to achieve "human brain consciousness upload".
It is worth mentioning that in May this year, the US FDA approved Neuralink to start human trials, and in November this year, the results were achieved, and the research team at the University of California, San Francisco, achieved an important breakthrough.
They implanted more than 250 electrode grids into the brain of a woman who was almost completely paralyzed by a stroke and lost the ability to speak, allowing her to speak on a large screen through an avatar. This technology achieves a speech conversion speed of 78 words per minute by recording brain activity and converting it into text using machine Xi.
At the same time, Neuralink is inviting people with paralysis symptoms to be the first recipients of its implantable BCI, demonstrating the potential of the technology for assisted communication.
Ann, who was paralyzed by a stroke, used a brain-computer interface to convert brain signals into a supernatural speech and movement.
***nature
Obviously, compared to Tesla cars and SpaceX rockets, Neuralink's "digital immortality" seems to have also driven Musk crazy. Interestingly, a reporter once asked Musk, do you plan to "live forever"?
Musk's answer was: "I'm not sure if humans should go for longevity, because it's not the people you want who are most likely to be the first to gain longevity." A lot of people who have power, you don't want them to have a super long life, they will never give up their power ......When people get old, their minds will solidify, so if you want society to progress, you have to make sure that people age normally, otherwise society will become lazy, stale and rigid. ”
What is certain is that when sufficient human, material and financial resources are poured in, progress has become inevitable.
In January of this year, the aforementioned Brian Johnson broke the world record for "reversing age" - not only did he age 30% slower than normal, but his overall biological age was also 51 year old.
So far in 2021, with the assistance of more than 30 doctors, Johnson decided to turn his body into a machine and published the full details of the experiment online. Today, 45-year-old Johnson has a 37-year-old heart, 35-year-old teeth, 28-year-old **, and 18-year-old physical strength.
But for ordinary people, this is still an impossible myth to touch.
Three|"Man-made gods".
Ethical boundaries
Many billionaires are hungry for immortality, mostly because they believe that they can push the boundaries of death through wealth and technology.
As Rami Kaminski, MD, explains, death is the ultimate equalizer for all, and the plutocrats try to control this uncontrollable fact through their means, power, and money. They fear death and desire to overcome the last limits of life.
Psychologist Keith Campbell points out that people who have long held wealth and power tend to believe that they are special, believing that the world would not function properly without them.
This divine plot drives them to invest in the search for the secret of eternal life, hoping to prolong their power and wealth. The Washington Post also highlighted the immaturity of these billionaires and their fear of inevitable death.
Human beings are immortalized as understood by AI
But one thing is for sureIf the natural law of death is altered by technology and wealth, the world's last equality will also disappear.
Bioethicist Christopher Wareham warns that the quest for immortality could exacerbate class solidification in society. Technology is neutral, but ethics is needed to demarcate it.
In any case, the world's richest and tech giants have already made a big health plan, and for the rich at the end of their lives, there is not much time left for them.
For ordinary people, it is natural to hope for technological innovation, medical progress, and blessings for the health of their families, but human immortality is not necessarily a good thing.
Whether the world is ready or not, the Maker of God never stops moving.
ENDS