A brand-new kind of drug, tested in mice, shows promising new results that could lead to the development of a new weight-loss drug that mimics exercise.
And then a few years later in generic form for much, much less.
I’m actually not terribly put out by the initial high cost of these things, especially when it’s something that isn’t a vital life-saving treatment that people have no choice but to try. Every new technology starts out expensive and gets cheaper as competition arises and better manufacturing techniques are developed.
I don’t see how that’s relevant. This is about a drug that simulates exercise. It’s a convenience drug. If you’re literally dying from lack of exercise, there are other less conveninet ways to do that already.
the trend is toward life-extention beyond natural limits. this has massive social implications and I don’t see anything that promises real artificial longevity ever becoming affordable by us plebs.
pehaps, but the trend is there and its accelerating. I suspect that in short order (timeline unknown) we will actually have a legitimately marketable “life extension” option at which point its only a matter of degrees. the extra x years that you and I might possibly afford will eventually pale in comparison to the extra y years for the truly wealthy - at that point, generational wealth and power take on a wholly new and rather frightening dimension.
I admit… I may have a particularly bleak view of our possible futures, but an “undead” ruling class does not figure into any rosy endings that I can envision.
I think my “and then a few years later in generic form for much, much less” prediction would still apply here. There’s always going to be demand for life-extension treatments at every wealth level, so any company that can figure out how to make it more cheaply than the others is going to have an additional market they can offer the treatment to that’s further down the pay scale from the others. A pharma company wouldn’t maximize profit by selling to only a handful of billionaires when they could also be selling to all the millionaires that are also out there.
And then a few years later in generic form for much, much less.
I’m actually not terribly put out by the initial high cost of these things, especially when it’s something that isn’t a vital life-saving treatment that people have no choice but to try. Every new technology starts out expensive and gets cheaper as competition arises and better manufacturing techniques are developed.
last time I checked, life was terminal.
I don’t see how that’s relevant. This is about a drug that simulates exercise. It’s a convenience drug. If you’re literally dying from lack of exercise, there are other less conveninet ways to do that already.
the trend is toward life-extention beyond natural limits. this has massive social implications and I don’t see anything that promises real artificial longevity ever becoming affordable by us plebs.
“Real” artificial longevity doesn’t exist yet. You’re jumping rather far ahead in that assumption.
pehaps, but the trend is there and its accelerating. I suspect that in short order (timeline unknown) we will actually have a legitimately marketable “life extension” option at which point its only a matter of degrees. the extra x years that you and I might possibly afford will eventually pale in comparison to the extra y years for the truly wealthy - at that point, generational wealth and power take on a wholly new and rather frightening dimension.
I admit… I may have a particularly bleak view of our possible futures, but an “undead” ruling class does not figure into any rosy endings that I can envision.
I think my “and then a few years later in generic form for much, much less” prediction would still apply here. There’s always going to be demand for life-extension treatments at every wealth level, so any company that can figure out how to make it more cheaply than the others is going to have an additional market they can offer the treatment to that’s further down the pay scale from the others. A pharma company wouldn’t maximize profit by selling to only a handful of billionaires when they could also be selling to all the millionaires that are also out there.