Actually, I would; I’ve donated a small amount of money already. Investing in anti-aging research won’t pay off for at least thirty years—that’s the turnaround time of medical research from breakthrough to useable treatment—but it’s a lot less of a pie-in-the-sky concern. (Although as long as people are dying for want of $1,000 TB medication, it still might be more cost effective to save those lives than to extend the lives of relatively rich people in developed countries.)
Actually, I would; I’ve donated a small amount of money already. Investing in anti-aging research won’t pay off for at least thirty years—that’s the turnaround time of medical research from breakthrough to useable treatment—but it’s a lot less of a pie-in-the-sky concern. (Although as long as people are dying for want of $1,000 TB medication, it still might be more cost effective to save those lives than to extend the lives of relatively rich people in developed countries.)
My guess is that SENS is more cost effective, but I haven’t done the calculating. Does anyone have access to those sorts of figures?
Ball parking:
$1000 buys you 45 extra person-years.
$10 billion buys you 30 extra person-years for a billion people.
Of course that depends on how much you agree with the figures given by de Grey.