Peter Thiel Gives Methuselah Foundation $3.5M Monday, Sep 18 2006
transhumanism 10:42 am
From the Methuselah Foundation website:
Peter Thiel puts his weight behind Dr. Aubrey de Grey’s engineering blueprint for alleviating the debilities caused by aging
San Francisco – Peter A. Thiel, co-founder and former CEO of online payments system PayPal, Founder and Managing Member of Clarium Capital Management, a San Francisco-based hedge fund, and angel investor in social networking site Facebook, has announced his pledge of $3.5 Million to support scientific research into the alleviation and eventual reversal of the debilities caused by aging, to be conducted under the auspices of the Methuselah Foundation, a charity co-founded and Chaired by Dr. Aubrey de Grey.
Mr. Thiel commented “Rapid advances in biological science foretell of a treasure trove of discoveries this century, including dramatically improved health and longevity for all. I’m backing Dr. de Grey, because I believe that his revolutionary approach to aging research will accelerate this process, allowing many people alive today to enjoy radically longer and healthier lives for themselves and their loved ones.
Mr. Thiel will donate a total of $500,000 over the next three years to fund pilot research projects intended to deliver early stage validation of the “SENS” approach to combating the debilitation caused by aging.
Additionally, from now until the end of 2009, Mr. Thiel promises to match every Dollar donated to the Methuselah Foundation for SENS research with a 50 cent matching contribution from himself, up to a maximum of $3 Million of matching funds.
Dr. de Grey said “I am extremely grateful to Peter for his bold and visionary initiative. I have been working with leading biologists and biochemists around the world in identifying promising research projects, and with this generous donation we will go to work straightaway.”
About SENS
SENS (Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence) is a detailed plan for alleviating the debilitation caused by human aging. SENS is an engineering project, reflecting the fact that aging is a medical condition and that medicine is an engineering discipline. Aging is a set of progressive changes in body composition, at the molecular and cellular level, which are side-effects of essential metabolic processes; each of these changes has the potential to be mitigated and eventually reversed. Further details of SENS can be found at: www.sens.org
I was fortunate to meet with Aubrey when he was in San Francisco to formally accept Thiel’s gift, talking with reporters and filming a promotional video. Aubrey attended a meeting of BA-Trans that I organized. Other attendees were Bruce Klein and Susan Fonseca-Klein, who were original founders of the Immortality Institute, and Adam Kamil, a frequent poster on ImmInst who flew in from LA to be at this event. Some photos can be downloaded here. Following is a photo of myself and Aubrey after a few drinks:
Yeah, ya look a bit tipsey, Kid-O! But that’s OK! As for Thiel’s involvement: GRRRREAT!
I think I blinked in the middle of the shot, which made me look even more drunk than I actually was (not very…)
Oh, I know, I know—I figured that—I’s just teasin’ ya. But it is good to see some moola going to SENS. Now if only we can get Gates, Dell, Soros, Cuban, Ric Branson, and other b-words (i.e., Billionaires) to give several 10s of mil EACH—THEN we might really get the show on the road!!
Although this should go on the previous post’s threads: I’d like to see Eli &/or Ben get their AGI systems up-&-runnin’ by 2012-2015 *AND* *de facto* delay nanotech until around that time as well. I.e., the two groups should conspire to do that. The only problem (as I myself emphasized—and Eric [Drexler] has emphasized for yrs) is that this might well give, say, China or Japan (or whomever) the opportunity to take the lead. And, not to be an American chauvanist *per se*, I really do think it’s globally meta-politically and meta-socio-economically better if we (America) “get there” first—I think, as bad as they are, we have the best socio-political procedures & processes to (hopefully) deal with optimally (or at least more near-optimally) than any other country. [cut n paste this over to the other threads if you wish---I just had to say it here, while it was on my mind]
Wish I coulda been at the winefest (as it were) with you & ol’ Aubrey…!!…
You guys aren’t getting drunk. You are just taking your daily dose of revesterol! It really is great to see some wealthy/famous people gettin involved in such a cause.
I drink more in Montreal by 10am than you drink all day.
Tommorro back to Pasadena to bask in sweet sobriety :)
Peter is a smart man. Its just common sense to want to live a very long time and he has the resources to really help make that dream a reality. I think that the ridiculously wealthy can actually do so much in contributing directly to anti-aging research.
So if your a multi-billionaire or just a millionaire who wants to throw some cash around (it is tax deductible i believe) please donate to me– er, I mean to SENS research.
http://www.fishlarvae.com/Humour/SidneyHarris_MiracleWeb.jpg
There Aubrey is reaming me for being a shitty photographer. (I believe he hadn’t slept in a couple days.)
Yeah, that was BS… it’s my camera that is too cheap!
From Around the Web on Thiel’s $3.5 Million Donation
Today, I thought I’d direct your attention to a selection of comments and thoughts from around the web on Peter Thiel’s $3.5 million vote of confidence for the Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence (SENS) and the Methuselah Foundation. Star…
Thank you for your interesting post!
I thought perhaps you may also find this related story interesting to you:
Longevity Science: SENS
http://longevity-science.blogspot.com/2007/01/sens.html
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