User 479360
Banned
That's a lot of money, and very nice of them. It sounds like it will go to great use, and make a big impact.
Kudos.
Kudos.
-
Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.
Mark Zuckerberg and wife Priscilla Chan pledge $3bn to cure all disease
- Thread starter DOWN
- Start date
- Status
BladeoftheImmortal
Member
Just focus it all on curing old age.
Rentahamster
Rodent Whores
All those people? Saving lives and increasing quality of life for all of us is a good goal. Overpopulation isn't going to be a large problem in the future as long as we all get richer and healthier, and our technological development stays on track.
triplestation
Member
Respec
Why do they have to have a plan for over population? Why try to save anyone from a fatal disease or accident anyway? Let's stop the fight against malaria, which kills hundreds of thousands of people every year, because those people will starve to death eventually anyway, right?
There are and will be plenty of others funding food production research.
Besides, if this funding helps advance development of better techniques for genetic modification those same techniques can also be used to create better food.
Right. You do know there's a finite amount of space to live and grow our food on, don't you?
Disease is nature's way to combat overpopulation. You fight disease, you enable overpopulation. It's great they're trying to cure the world, but the fact is that the result will only mean more suffering.
Overpopulation problems are going to decrease, not increase, as we advance. Yields continue to increase, while transport costs and the like decrease.
OT, good stuff.
TheSaddestSort
Member
Hope the funded research comes up with some good data and useful findings. Just please pass on those exhibiting signs of affluenza, they're probably already too far gone.
Big donations always sound suspect to me. We don't know, which channels they go through and who gets the money.
It would be better, he invested the money in new companies, which try to make the world better and have noble goals. Then people would get new jobs, give people directly a better life, through a better economy, and maybe change the world in long term. Donations sounds like: "I don't care, simply take my money, they take away space from my new money!".
It would be better, he invested the money in new companies, which try to make the world better and have noble goals. Then people would get new jobs, give people directly a better life, through a better economy, and maybe change the world in long term. Donations sounds like: "I don't care, simply take my money, they take away space from my new money!".
LookAtMeGo
Member
Free healthcare to treat incurable diseases?
It is a fact is it? Do you have anything to back up that ludicrous statement? I think the fact is that there are more people now than we have ever had and the average quality of life is better than it has ever been.
What are you doing to combat this looming overpopulation doom scenario?
Did you even read the article? First of all, it is not one big donation.
One of the things they're funding is a company that aims to develop tools that can be used in medical research (of any kind I'm assuming). In short, yes, I'm pretty sure this will help combat diseases associated with old age.
From the article:
*Scientists Note: No it isn't and nature has not actually weaponized to control overpopulation. Nature doesnt have an actual opinion on the subject. If it helps the creature survive, good shit. If it doesnt, nature doesnt form diseases in retaliation for it.
That's what Biohub sounds like, no?
Rentahamster
Rodent Whores
There is a finite amount of space on this Earth, and it can sustain a lot of us, and based on current population trends, we will hit a plateau once wealth, health, and life span is great enough that having a high birthrate is not a priority.
Disease is not necessarily "nature's way" of fighting population. Nature doesn't have a "way". It's all just a bunch of systems interacting with each other.
Malthus thought that we'd be overpopulated and self destruct by now. He was wrong. Most doomsday prophets are.
There's also Google's Verily and I assume both will be in SSF and open to collaboration.
You can often actually look that stuff up. Here it's pretty trivial to read the article and see that the money is going to form a new non-profit institute bringing together researchers from Stanford, Cal, and UCSF.
I don't agree, but this is actually more or less what Zuckerberg and Chan are doing, given that their philanthropic efforts are being run through a for-profit entity.
Maybe it only sounds like that because that's what you would do if you donated money? This is not how most wealthy people do philanthropy.
FloatingDivider
Member
Good luck I guess? Kind of sad we live in a world where a social network site has to sponsor the curing of disease because apparently social networks make more revenue than curing all disease would.
A worthy cause, but they would have been better pledging $3 billion towards combating the massive tax avoidance that the Silicon Valley tech sector shamelessly revels in, which would return $100 billion+ in lost tax revenues annually. That would address the suffering of millions of people today, who have been paying the bill for massive corporate fraud and failed government policy since 2008.
smh
HarryHengst
Member
Pretty much. Would be a better start if companies like Facebook started paying tax like regular chumps like everyone on this forum, but hey, that doesnt result in people calling you amazing like hiding it all from the IRS and then going all ''hey all this untaxed money is going to be spend on creating for-profits that perhaps do something good but will most likely make me even richer!".
it redirects me to cnn.com
can i ask, what is this about https://apple.news/
???
i cant get to that page?
can i ask, what is this about https://apple.news/
???
i cant get to that page?
Shotgun Kiss
Member
A wonderful intent and gesture, though I seriously doubt that humankind will ever be able to combat all diseases, even given infinite finances and time.
Also, even if they succeeded, wouldn't there be a huge over-population crisis in many parts of the world?
Also, even if they succeeded, wouldn't there be a huge over-population crisis in many parts of the world?
Are you a sociopath?
.png/revision/latest?cb=20130322225845)
RustyRobot
Neo Member
I don't get the enthusiasm at all.
Seems to me that Zuckerberg is just founding a for-profit pharma company. btw 3bn is a laughably small budget for R&D in this sector.
Seems to me that Zuckerberg is just founding a for-profit pharma company. btw 3bn is a laughably small budget for R&D in this sector.
Yeah but it's £3 billion more than what they currently have and that's huge. More mega companies should be doing donations like Zukerberg and Chan not only them.
A Fish Aficionado
I am going to make it through this year if it kills me
What the wut?
I mean, you could argue drug attrition rates, and complexity, such as the Biden led cancer Moonshot, but this is dumb.
Hell, you can also say that this might be an extension of publishh or persish. Or the replication crisis in science.
There are so many reasons why science, especially clinical research is hard.
Not big pharma conspiracy.
This is good. More money because govt funding is underfunded. Thanks for that budget conscious fucks.
It seems to me that you haven't read much of what they plan on doing and that you're pretty clueless about the whole thing. Considering this, I get that you don't get the enthusiasm.
RustyRobot
Neo Member
Well... I read the thread. But true, nothing more. So where is the difference to pharma companies? They also partner with universities. They would also like to cure all diseases und earn a nice profit.
karasu
Member
Bullshit. That's magical thinking if I've ever seen it.
A Fish Aficionado
I am going to make it through this year if it kills me
You clearly haven't taken college level biology.
Only more suffering? Do you really think the era of heroic surgery is akin to modern surgery and medicine?
Do you realize the history of medicine?
So you didn't learn anything from the last time you made a clueless statement based on cynical feelings?
Their first initiative called Biohub aims to officially facilitate collaboration for medical research between three major universities: UC Berkeley, Stanford University and UCSF. This is obviously a nonprofit initiative.
Joe DeRisi on How the Biohub Will Create Opportunities for Research Collaboration
Another article
I don't have time right now to pick out the interesting parts and feed them to you in piece meal quotes, so you will have to read a bit or skip all that "hard work" to actually learn something and trust me when I say you're wrong.
RustyRobot
Neo Member
I think you misunderstood my post. The more money goes into research, the better. No doubt about it. But there is no admiration required for Zuckerberg for founding a profit oriented pharma company. It's no philantrophy, it's simply business.
And claiming to have the desire to cure all diseases with only 3bn is just beyond me. Compare 3bn to the yearly R&D budget of pharma companies and universities. 3bn is basically a drop on the hot stone.
What for profit pharma company are they funding? Links? And you seem to suggesting this is all they are doing with the 3 billion, funding a for profit pharma company? Interesting confidence for someone who just moments ago admitted to only reading this thread and nothing else. Not even the full article presumably?
- Status