When they aren’t investing in space shuttles, underground Hyperloops and sprawling tech campuses, the super-rich are looking at a range of mind-blowing methods to increase their lifespan. We’ve dug into some of the strangest and most extravagant approaches billionaires have turned to in their quest for immortality (or at least get a few more years in than the rest of us). Billionaire PayPal co-founder turned venture capitalist Peter Thiel has made headlines over the past few years for his rumored interest in this process, specifically related to a start-up company called Ambrosia. This isn’t new ground for Thiel who has made investments in several medical research start-ups looking at ways to extend life via his Breakout Labs fund.
This is unlikely to deter interest from those with the cash for a pint or two of youthful plasma and as of the start of 2019 – there are three US companies offering the service to well-paying trial participants. Peter Thiel (yes, him again) is the most vocal in his endorsement of this process via substantial investments proving that the mega-rich see some real potential in the method of life extension. One of the most famous people associated with cryonics is Walt Disney. Although the rumors of him being frozen after his death have been debunked, the process itself is very real.
It’s not just humans that can benefit from the freezing process according to the Cryonics Institute which also offers a range of options for pets – £4,000 for cats or dogs and even £760 for a pet bird. At least the billionaires who choose to give this method a go won’t be lonely in the distant future – assuming that they’re ever unfrozen. While it’s easy to laugh these ideas off as Silicon Valley gone mad, it’s worth mentioning that there’s some serious money being invested into this project – with around £1 million in funding and a £900,000 federal grant from the US National Institute of Mental Health.
“We’re going to become increasingly non-biological to the point where the non-biological part dominates, and the biological part is not important any more. In fact, the non-biological part – the machine part – will be so powerful it can completely model and understand the biological part.” Another company looking into ways in which humans can live on via digital consciousness is the Terasem Movement Foundation looking to create ‘mindware’ which would be used as part of a ‘nanotechnological body’ (a robot essentially) that would allow you to live without the constraints of pesky things like death and old age. Reddit’s CEO Steve Huffman has provided the best insight into this mentality, claiming that he had corrective eye surgery and stockpiles weaponry, food and gold coins to make sure he’s ready for a disaster scenario. If his case sounds like an anomaly, estimates from insiders claim that upwards of 50% of Silicon Valley billionaires have some form of ‘apocalypse insurance’.
Colonizing Space
Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg is apparently on the same wavelength, with a 700-acre plot of land in Hawaii “just in case”, while Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison has taken it a step further – buying 98% of the land on Hawaii’s sixth-largest island, Lanai, as well as his own airline. They say money can’t buy you happiness, but it can certainly get you somewhere fancy to hide while the world ends. As well as being a smart investment where tech development is concerned and the commercial aspects netting them some big revenue, there’s a clear ulterior motive of hedging bets in case our planet suffers a crisis. After all, who doesn’t dream of a nice holiday home on Mars? “The first fully independent ‘nation’ in space, with its own government, virtual currency, justice system and calendar.” With so much wealth and pride at stake in these space projects, you can expect some rapid progress as the richest people on Earth battle it out to be the first to stake their claim to some off-world real estate. This article was repulished from the ABC Finance blog. If you want to read more on a range of financial topics including how much the mega-rich make compared to you and which landowners control the most UK real estate – visit the ABC Finance blog.
