[xenophanes]

Big SENS fan here. Good question.

A lot of the reason is that people do philanthropy to gain various types of status and reputation. It's often a social action. Investing in SENS wouldn't impress their friends in the right way, while various other causes optimize for social signaling.

Yachts and social media companies are a bit different. The yachts are for fun in addition to being a social signal that impresses some people. The social media companies are usually either to make money or to hang out in certain circles, but they do also have some signaling possibilities (you can tell your old stodgy rich friends that you're involved in more hip investments than them).

[exratione]

Jason Hope is demonstrating that you can generate status from funding SENS. More of this would be a good thing:

http://www.jasonhope.com

[xenophanes]

FWIW I'm not convinced that more appeasement of status signaling stuff would be a good thing, even if that kind of compromise got SENS some more money in the short term.

Living longer is great but living better is also very important. Social games waste so much of many people's lives.

[freshhawk]

"more appeasement of status signaling stuff", "Social games waste so much of many people's lives"

"appeasement"? Seeking social status is what primates do. It's not even "human nature", it's lower level than that. It's not cultural, it's primate genetics.

The disconnect in the conversations in this thread? Two groups talking past each other? It's because some people are talking about how homo sapiens behave and some people are talking about how homo economicus [1] behaves.

It's not like you are wrong, it's just two conversations happening at once. One is based in reality and another based in fantasy.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homo_economicus

[pistle]

A couple people do philanthropy because they care. But the rest are just trying to impress friends.

[streetnigga]

Yachts are also good for committing manslaughter[0]. This is coming from the wealthy man who thinks focus on the wealthy means a Kristallnacht.

"Writing from the epicenter of progressive thought, San Francisco, I would call attention to the parallels of fascist Nazi Germany to its war on its 'one percent,' namely its Jews, to the progressive war on the American one percent, namely the "rich," Perkins, a founding member of the venture capital firm Kleiner, Perkins, Caulfield and Byers, wrote in a letter to the editor in The Wall Street Journal on Friday.

[0] http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/5-things-to-know-about-the-k...

[xenophanes]

He didn't say that yachts are good for manslaughter or that manslaughter is good.

I don't want to debate politics with you because you don't come off as seeking a rational open-minded discussion.

I'm commenting primarily to make it clear that I do not agree with you. I didn't want to leave that ambiguous since both your and my comments about the rich were primarily negative in this thread.

[streetnigga]

If the topic is use of wealth, 'social signals' then monies spent on Yacht races by owners like the one linked is applicable. I do not think there could be a bigger waste of resources than 'social signalling' by the wealthy with Yacht based fundraisers.

Essentially I would go the more direct route, not with events that allow you to use your toys. Not sure where you getting signals of irrationality or lack of open minded discussion. Is it because the word Yacht brings up images of extreme waste instead of philanthropy, resulting in me linking to the likes of Mr Kristallnacht? How well is that social signalling going if this happens to people?