When they aren’t investing in space shuttles and sprawling tech campuses, the super-rich are looking at mind-blowing methods to increase their lifespan.
Analysis by commercial finance experts ABC Finance has revealed some of the strangest and most extravagant approaches billionaires have turned to in their quest for immortality.
With its growing aging population, Singapore has a looming crisis, but could also be primed to become a major player in the rejuvenation biotechnology industry.
Singapore has one of the fastest-aging populations in the world. Senior citizens 65 years old or older are expected to make up almost half of Singapore’s population by 2050. Unfortunately, this swelling population is spending more time living with sickness, even though they live longer. While average lifespans have been extended, healthspans have not. [1] Singaporeans have an impressive average life expectancy of 84.8 years, but an average Singaporean born in 2017 is predicted to spend the last ten and a half years in sickness, compared to how a Singaporean born in 1999 is likely to spend only nine twilight years in deteriorating health.
This is becoming a massive concern for the Singaporean government because of the financial strain that this is imposing on Singapore’s budget. Having the world’s second-lowest birth rate coupled with a rapidly aging population means that the ratio of working adults to senior citizens is quickly shrinking. In 2007, there were 6.9 working adults for every senior citizen. By 2030, there will be 2.3 working adults per senior citizen.
In under a decade, Singapore’s healthcare budget more than doubled from S$4 billion in 2010 to S$10 billion in 2017. [2] Among the developed nations of the world, Singapore has a reputation for being one of the most fiscally conservative; there’s a socio-political stigma against the term “welfare state” in Singapore. Since its unprecedented independence in 1965, Singapore has had a general zeitgeist of “every man for himself,” as we are a nation with no natural resources. Our highly-educated workforce, along with our strategic geographical location, is the primary resource undergirding our knowledge-based economy.
Just a few months ago, Augustín Carstens, the general manager for the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), the so-called central bank for central banks, said his organization saw no value in the potential of central-bank-issued digital currencies. Well, he’s apparently had a change of heart, and the entrance of Facebook and other “big techs” into financial services appears to be the reason.
The news: Carstens told the Financial Times that the BIS is supporting the “many” central banks currently developing or researching digital currencies. “And it might be that it is sooner than we think that there is a market and we need to be able to provide central bank digital currencies,” he said.
The context: Many other central bankers have dismissed cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, which tend to be volatile and whose most popular use has been speculation. But Facebook’s proposed digital currency, Libra, will be backed by fiat money and designed to maintain a stable value.
The oldest plant ever to be regenerated has been grown from 32,000-year-old seeds—beating the previous recordholder by some 30,000 years. (Related: “‘Methuselah’ Tree Grew From 2,000-Year-Old Seed.”)
A Russian team discovered a seed cache of Silene stenophylla, a flowering plant native to Siberia, that had been buried by an Ice Age squirrel near the banks of the Kolyma River (map). Radiocarbon dating confirmed that the seeds were 32,000 years old.
The mature and immature seeds, which had been entirely encased in ice, were unearthed from 124 feet (38 meters) below the permafrost, surrounded by layers that included mammoth, bison, and woolly rhinoceros bones.
A new study by researchers from the Dexeus Women’s Health research network in Barcelona found that frozen sperm samples survived when exposed to microgravity.
That could mean that sperm banks in space are possible, providing future space travelers with the ability to reproduce in space with sperm samples brought up from Earth.
“Some studies suggest a significant decrease in the motility of a human, fresh sperm sample,” Montserrat Boada who presented the research yesterday at an annual meeting in Vienna, Austria, said, as quoted by The Guardian. “But nothing has been reported on the possible effects of gravitational differences on frozen human gametes, in which state they could be transported from Earth to space.”
Cryonicists are banking on the idea that future technology will allow preserved bodies to be brought back to life.
Posted in aging, bioengineering, biotech/medical, business, chemistry, finance, health, life extension, neuroscience | Leave a Comment on Dr. Dennis McKenna — ideaXme — Psychedelic Drugs in Mainstream Medicine — Ira Pastor
Today, Facebook is coming together with 27 organizations around the world to start the non-profit Libra Association and create a new currency called Libra.
Libra is a global cryptocurrency built on blockchain to promote financial inclusion. Libra is digital, mobile, stable, fast, cheap and secure. Read the Libra White Paper.
Posted in bitcoin, finance, mobile phones | Leave a Comment on Today, Facebook is coming together with 27 organizations around the world to start the non-profit Libra Association and create a new currency called Libra
Libra’s mission is to create a simple global financial infrastructure that empowers billions of people around the world. It’s powered by blockchain technology and the plan is to launch it in 2020. You can read more about the association here: https://libra.org/&h=AT0Vpgfo9yMWI9A93aDq0V-7D3PwK9TiZGZPAa_BVoal0OPSc35BbUCAtGmGtYCSe1snvx4iyGgzAjJH_SNk9jXahHxaNeiXKs7G6xYhCn5uuyaLAdmvsF_Auh5d95fck0Gjutf9JLxr9JN_ROjt9rS9fxwM60QOalAjhzqyp1shbln_la1VStESZA
Being able to use mobile money can have an important positive impact on people’s lives because you don’t have to always carry cash, which can be insecure, or pay extra fees for transfers. This is especially important for people who don’t have access to traditional banks or financial services. Right now, there are around a billion people who don’t have a bank account but do have a mobile phone.
Updated 5 p.m. Eastern with corrected quote provided by the company in final paragraph.
WASHINGTON — Small launch vehicle Vector has hired a new chief financial officer who previously held similar positions at Blue Origin and Sierra Nevada Corporation.
Vector announced June 12 Stephanie Koster as its new CFO, leading the company’s finance and business operations. Koster joined the company in March, according to her LinkedIn profile.
