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Claude discovers a novel enzyme system with CRISPR-like repeats

780 points · 805 comments · raahelb

  1. modeless · · focus · HN ↗
    It's clear Dario believes that the solution to AI's PR problem is to cure cancer. Or invent other revolutionary medical treatments. They're going to heavily promote every step along the way no matter how small or far away from commercialization they are, like this one.

    No doubt that curing cancer would help, but I think the timeline might be a little too long. Even RSI AGI will not be able to get new medical treatments to market instantly. Real world testing takes a long time and is an unavoidable part of the process.

    1. baq · · focus · HN ↗
      Dario would like to ‘cure’ aging. He’s got some personal experience with bad illnesses, but aging isn’t that. I also have reduced trust for people who want to live forever and don’t have kids.
      1. altcognito · · focus · HN ↗
        Probably should have left off the kids, but lets start with just distrusting anybody who wants to live forever. At the level of influence billionaires have, it is downright dangerous.

        For everyone else confused: Think of all the people throughout history we would prefer would not have lived forever. Then multiple that by A LOT. Then consider how greedy and sociopathic most of the billionaire class is already.

        Now, we could spend time getting distracted by childless. I don't think it matters.

        1. Windchaser · · focus · HN ↗
          I mean, wanting billionaires to not live forever (read: wanting power structures to not become excessively entrenched) is a pretty different thing.

          I'd even be fine with people who are billionaires living forever, so long as they don't remain billionaires / don't fuck with politics / etc.

          1. altcognito · · focus · HN ↗
            You can't have your cake and eat it too.

            Fundamentally the problem with living forever goes beyond billionaires. People get stuck in their ways of thinking, the mindset of living forever is completely different. Why should I even listen to someone who only lives a mere 40 years? What is a suitable punishment for someone that lives forever? How does it change murder?

            Philosophically, living forever may be corrupt by nature.

            The only way to tear down tiers of society is for some of those tiers to literally die off.

            1. Windchaser · · focus · HN ↗
              > Fundamentally the problem with living forever goes beyond billionaires. People get stuck in their ways of thinking > Philosophically, living forever may be corrupt by nature

              Sure, if people get stuck in their ways forever. But what if they don't?

              If we can solve longevity, we might also be able to "solve" brain plasticity, therapy, psychology, sociology, etc., such that people's beliefs will be more flexible and people's minds more open.

              I think it is incorrect to assume that we would solve biology while all of the fields researching the health of the mind made little progress.

              We shouldn't imagine the future as being like today, only different in a few key ways - this is the trap of sci-fi authors. The future will be different in more ways than we expect. We might well fix 'old people are stuck in their ways' before we fix longevity.

              1. altcognito · · focus · HN ↗
                You can "solve" human biology? For what optimal outcome? We can all be Elons running around trying to procreate as much as possible? What is the optimal human model? How is human biology NOT going to become anything except the same distorted race to the bottom that everything else has been? We've not solved the mental model of survival-of-the-fittest.

                The best analogy for a positive outcome I can come up with is living within our means as a species. Leverage AI, leverage all the tools we have for production, but we have to find equalibrium with ourselves and the universe we live in.

                I'll vote for the terminators and meteors if we insist on living beyond our means.

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