[majikaja]

If I had $1m lying around now I would drop everything and focus on longevity/medical research. Who cares about making improvements to gadgets if we're all going to die in a few decades.

The faster this tech bubble bursts and people stop flocking to engineering the better.

[chii]

> I would drop everything and focus on longevity/medical research

if you are not someone who is already trained at this field, it's inefficient to start on your own. You'd be giving up your expertise and productivity in tech, in return for mediocre output in the research.

Much better option is to keep working in tech, earn as much money as is feasible, and then funnel the excess funds into companies that _do_ longetivity research.

[LewisVerstappen]

> Much better option is to keep working in tech, earn as much money as is feasible, and then funnel the excess funds into companies that _do_ longetivity research.

THat's a good idea. But I think an even better strategy would be to start a cryptocurrency hedge fund and later start an associated exchange.

This will allow us to maximize the amount of money we earn, so we can have the greatest impact on companies that do longevity research.

[chii]

> But I think an even better strategy would be to start a cryptocurrency hedge fund and later start an associated exchange.

> ???

> profit

> This will allow us to maximize the amount of money we earn

So if you could fill in the ??? on how to profit, then yes, this is a good way too. Note that it needs to be legal.

[LewisVerstappen]

I'm joking around. What you said is very similar to the "Effective Altruist" mindset and so I'm referencing FTX & Alameda.

[chii]

oh it's not altruistic. The life and longevity research investment will make a good return, considering that almost everyone would want to live longer and thus the demand would be insatiable. It's an investment.

[robertlagrant]

But you have to spend all the money on research before the SEC sends you to jail, right?

[amrocha]

That's a great way of minimizing the money you earn

[jwmoz]

Nice try, SBF.

[thefaux]

Doesn't the same logic apply to funneling your money? How would you be qualified to direct your resources effectively if you aren't an expert in the field? How much surplus do you expect to generate that it will actually make a difference after it's gone through the layers of bureaucratic bloat and maybe, if you're lucky, is actually spent on productive research that bears fruit?

[majikaja]

I'm not sure if money is the bottleneck - I think billionaires are already throwing as much funds as they can to such companies. I don't think a few extra millionaires are going to make a difference.

I'm not particularly concerned about partially starting over in a new field - I'm not that old so my skillset is not particularly tremendous. If anything, I feel coming from outside the traditional system and already having financial freedom is a positive. When I was in academia (not CS) I didn't feel the standard of the people there was particularly great and my trust in top-down organizations is generally quite low.

[laszlojamf]

So once we all live forever we can spend our days improving gadgets just because it's fun?

[majikaja]

If tech were that fun all SW engineers would be paid games industry salaries.

[CatWChainsaw]

My bet is a mass existential crisis.