[extropy-chat] The Longevity Dividend

[Robert Bradbury]

I haven't tried to look up the URL for the report, but the NY Times has some
comments that may be relevant.

See:
"Census Report Foresees No Crisis Over Aging Generation's Health"
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/10/national/10aging.html

The basic message seems to be that there are decreasing numbers of
"chronically disabled".

However you could ask *what* that may be costing us?
See:
"A Cancer Drug's Big Price Rise Disturbs DOctors and Patients"
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/12/business/12price.html?ei=5094&en=3bdec083598e50d4&hp=&ex=1142139600&partner=homepage&pagewanted=print

That article suggests there is little connection between drug prices and
manufacturing costs or product development cost amortization.  Instead
prices seem to be primarly "what the market will bear" (whether or not the
drugs are on *or* off patent).

Not directly related but interesting is the perspective that if everyone had
body filled with cells with the perfect "non-aging" genetic program, then
health care costs which are an increasingly non-trivial part of personal,
corporate and/or national budgets would be determined entirely by the
accident rate (and the severity of those accidents).

And before everyone goes screaming that medical care has to be expensive, I
would remind us that in a "fair" world we are each limited to ~10 kg of
nanorobots due to the hypsithermal limit and 10 kg of nanorobots should,
according to Drexler's cost analysis, cost about $5.00 per person (ignoring
design costs).  So nanorobots designed to install the "perfect" genome into
each and every cell in our bodies need not be unaffordable for anyone --
even people currently living at or below the poverty line in the third
world.  (Also, after my nanorobots have finished upgrading my own personal
genome I'd be happy to loan them to others for their own personal genome
lifespan extension upgrades.)

Robert
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