Doug Casey: The Rich Will Soon Cheat Death

Via Casey Research

Chris’ note: We’re on the verge of another Industrial Revolution.

And much like the first Industrial Revolution, this period will be marked by profound change. According to Doug Casey, matter, energy, space, and time will “soon be manipulated on a cosmic scale”… thanks to rapid advances in technology.

For example, life extension breakthroughs could soon solve the problem of aging. If that happens, Doug says you could “be, do, and have everything that you can imagine.”

That makes it one of the most important advancements to watch going forward. So I got Doug on the phone to learn more about the implications of life extension…


Chris Reilly, managing editor, Casey Daily Dispatch: Doug, how far along is life extension science? Could the average person soon start living well beyond the age of 100?

Doug Casey, founder, Casey Research: In 1982, Durk Pearson and Sandy Shaw – two close friends of mine – wrote a book appropriately titled Life Extension: A Practical Scientific Approach. I don’t have the book in front of me, but it’s about 600 pages. Parts of it are quite scientific, as its title would indicate. It was a New York Times bestseller for many weeks.

Back then, there were a half-dozen dominant theories about why people aged and died. The main thing you could do at the time was proper diet, exercise, good mental attitude – and having long-lived ancestors. Those things, and trying to slow down the natural destruction of your cells by taking a lot of vitamins and antioxidants.

Back then it was quite hard to get decent supplements. If people were aware at all, perhaps they’d take a One a Day, with enough vitamins to ward off scurvy, rickets or beriberi, but not enough for optimal health. In addition, many formulations were in the form of rock hard tablets, made under heat and pressure. They’d go right through you without even dissolving. And even if they did dissolve, the ingredients were totally compromised.

Things have changed considerably. Durk and Sandy continue to engage in super-nutrition. As do I.

It used to be just about antioxidants. But there are now other compounds like coenzyme Q10, resveratrol, and metformin that may let you live longer. And there are many other things you can do besides super-nutrition.

Chris: Like what? What are some other ways to extend your life?

Doug: Calorie restriction is another thing that makes sense.

Roy Walford was, among other things, the physician on the Biosphere 2 project in the Arizona desert. He developed the theory of super-nutrition combined with calorie restriction. He came to several meetings of the Eris Society to talk about his findings. He was planning on living to 125 – the probable natural genetic limit on lifespan – but died of Lou Gehrig’s disease at 79. The fickle finger of fate can point at any of us…

The science behind life extension has advanced a lot since then however. Just like artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, and nanotech, it’s advancing at the rate of Moore’s Law.

The key to extending your life now appears to hinge on reengineering your genetic makeup. That’s the cutting edge.

Billionaires like Larry Ellison, Jeff Bezos, and Peter Thiel understand that having all the money in the world does you no good if you get old and die; they don’t put luggage racks on hearses. Naturally, they want to live forever, because they’re on top of the world. Nobody wants to take the long dirt nap six feet under. So, I continue to monitor the whole area.

Chris: Aside from super-nutrition, what other things have you done to extend your lifespan?

Doug: Well, regrettably, I’m already 73 years old. And the Second Law of Thermodynamics has its effect on absolutely everything from amoebas to individual people to corporations to countries. That’s the tendency of everything to wind down and fall apart. Entropy.

It’s one of the few laws that I actually believe in. It’s incontrovertible that everything ends, right up to the heat death of the universe itself. I suggest you read Asimov’s short story “The Last Question” in that regard.

But let’s forget about the ultra-long-term for the moment. I try to go to the gym and pump iron three times a week. I know my limitations, so I no longer play polo, skydive, ride motorcycles, or drive cars too fast. I take a bunch of nutraceuticals. And I try to abstain from bad habits like overeating, drinking to excess, and smoking cigarettes. Although I love the occasional cigar; the problem in our increasingly puritanical society is finding a decent place to smoke one.

I’m counting on a research firm pursuing anti-aging/disease-prevention to get lucky. Perhaps a breakthrough in the pursuit of biological immortality is near. And there are many firms pursuing it right now.

Chris: How soon until life extension or anti-aging technologies go mainstream?

Doug: Well, rich people will obviously take advantage of these technologies first. That’s because, like all technologies, it will be expensive at first. Then they become democratized and cheap.

Nobody wants to become old and sick. So, life extension is one of the best reasons for becoming as wealthy as possible. If you’re poor, there’s absolutely nothing you can do about it.

I’m waiting for an indication. Perhaps George Soros, who is in his late eighties and looks half dead, will start looking healthy and young all of a sudden. I suppose we have to take the bad with the good… I’ll then know that a major breakthrough has been made if I haven’t already heard about it through the grapevine.

Chris: Where might this breakthrough occur? What area of science?

Doug: It’s likely to come through some variation of stem cell therapy or genetic engineering.

I’ve actually had some stem cell therapy. I went to Panama to have a course of it. But I didn’t notice any change. It didn’t have an effect on me.

Now, I don’t know if that’s because of the methods they were using there or the peculiarities of my genetic makeup. It’s hard to say.

Look, death is the most important problem of life, and people don’t talk about it. They, at best, talk around it. They don’t want to confront it because it’s such an ugly thing. But you won’t solve the problem by hiding from it.

I’ve read a lot of science on the subject and am looking for a magic breakthrough. As is Ray Kurzweil. He believes that the Singularity is only 20-25 years away. That will trivialize any of the problems we have today, and hopefully make the future not only better than you imagine, but better than you can imagine. The key is to just hold on that long.

Chris: Doug, I recently read about a young Russian billionaire who started something called the 2045 Initiative. In short, he wants to have his brain uploaded to a computer so he can live forever as a hologram.

He says this is the next step in human evolution. Do you agree with him? Is this where life extension technology is headed? Or is this a different phenomenon entirely?

Doug: Well, a bit of background first. Cryogenics has been around now for about 50 years. This is the idea that you can either freeze your body, or at least your head, and at some point in the future technology will allow for you to be reanimated.

It may work, although I’m skeptical. Although there’s no theoretical limit to what technology can accomplish, preserving your meat brain may or may not mean that you preserve yourself or your memories or your knowledge. So I can understand his interest in somehow uploading his consciousness to… let’s call it the Matrix.

Is it possible? I’m a solipsist at heart. That means I think anything that can be imagined can be done.

I think it’s very problematical, and my guess is that it’s a dead end in the near term. But I wish him well. There are undoubtedly many paths up the mountain. Anything is worth a shot, considering that the alternative is nonexistence.

Chris: Doug, now that you’ve touched on the philosophical ramifications, I’m interested in what you think about the more immediate considerations of life extension.

Specifically, what will society be like if the ultra-wealthy find a way to cheat death? Will this lead to even more income inequality or eventually overpopulation if older people aren’t dying at a natural rate?

Doug: These technologies will have a wonderful effect on society. As people live longer, their time preferences change. They become less live-in-the-moment and more let’s-look-forward-to-the-future.

If I knew I was going to die in a year, I wouldn’t make any long-term plans or investments. But if I’m going to live for another 100 years or 1,000 years, I’m going to reorient what I do with my life. I’ll have a reason to want the world to be better in the future, other than just good karma.

Life extension could, for instance, have an immense impact on morality. By having a longer timeframe preference, people will likely become much more ethical. They’ll know that they have to live with the consequences of their actions – good and bad – for a long time. The amount of wealth will increase geometrically; people will be much less prone to dissipate it in the short term. They’ll save it, and try to compound it for the future.

If rich people are the only ones that can take advantage of life extension to start with, I’d say that’s wonderful. And probably the way it should be. Why? Well, most rich people – with the exception of crony capitalists, thieves, and politicians – become rich because they provide goods and services that the world values. I can hear the envious screaming “What about me? I want to live longer at somebody else’s expense!”

The rich will be, and should be, first in line for living forever. They may or may not be the nicest people. But their wealth is some evidence that they’re more diligent, more intelligent, and harder working than most. That’s tough luck for the ne’er-do-wells, the mooches, and the slackers. If you’re poor, you made your bed. Now, you sleep in it. And, yes, I hear the whines about “bad luck.” You make your own luck over the course of a lifetime. In fact, the bread generally goes to the wise, the race to the swift, and the battle to the strong. At least in a free market. That’s what justice is all about.

I’m very concerned by the government in this context. This is to say that many people in government want to control other people. They’re already talking about wanting to make it impossible for anybody to become a billionaire. Which may make it impossible for anybody to live longer than the norm. They want egalitarian democracy? It only exists in the graveyard. I’m not interested.

In the process of trying to reward lazy and incompetent grasshoppers, and penalize productive bumblebees, they may throw a monkey wrench into scientific progress itself. These people are even now eating away at the foundations of Western Civilization. They’re anti everything that’s brought mankind out of the muck – free speech, free thought, free markets, individualism, science… and life extension. Why? I’ve heard some fools argue that it will bankrupt Social Security and Medicare. Of course those systems are already bankrupt – but they should be abolished. As crimes against humanity.

Politics brings out the worst in people. It attracts the most degraded types. But other than that, I’m incredibly optimistic for the future, including the possibility of living for a very, very long time in a healthy and productive way.

Chris: Aside from investing in your own health, have you made any investments in the life extension space? Maybe there’s a company that you’re personally speculating on?

Doug: No. I haven’t found the bio equivalent of Apple or Microsoft yet, but I’m looking. It’s not easy. As you know, there’s an old saying, “high tech, big wreck.”

Getting involved in a bioscience project in its early days could make somebody a trillionaire. But for every person that hits the jackpot like that, there are going to be billions and billions of dollars flushed down a toilet in false-start companies that just don’t make it.

So, the answer to the question is that I’m looking. I haven’t found anything that I’ve personally put any money in. But most of my friends are high IQ libertarians that are science-oriented. And also looking. If I find the right deal, I’ll let you know.

Frankly, it makes a lot more sense for the market to allocate capital into something like that than buying big yellow trucks and digging holes in the ground, which is basically where I allocate most of my money now. That said, I expect I’ll get 10-1 in the coming resource bull market. That will give me the flexibility you should have to play with biological science projects.

Chris: Thanks for chatting with me today, Doug.

Doug: You’re welcome.

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Anonymous White Male
Anonymous White Male

I don’t know why anyone gives credence to those “prophets” that predict the future.

I was a teenage sex fiend (EC)
I was a teenage sex fiend (EC)

It’s either dread or anticipation, white whale.

M G
M G

“According to Doug Casey, matter, energy, space, and time will “soon be manipulated on a cosmic scale”… thanks to rapid advances in technology.”

Manipulated on a cosmic scale? I’m looking at the Big Sky to try and determine what sort of grand scheme Doug is willing to stake his and clients’ investment portfolios upon that is going to alter the very composition of the Cosmos. It is partly cloudly, but I see skies of blue.

Specifically, what will society be like if the ultra-wealthy find a way to cheat death?

Will this lead to even more income inequality or eventually overpopulation if older people aren’t dying at a natural rate?

This woman is so wrong on so many levels… her first premise is the biggest wrong of all.

In the introduction, she declares that we have been trying to treat poverty with Charity when we should be using public effort, i.e., bureaucracy. However, listening to her very biased argument from that point on helps me grasp what Doug Casey refers to as “ne’er-do-wells, mooches and slackers.”

The rich will be, and should be, first in line for living forever. They may or may not be the nicest people. But their wealth is some evidence that they’re more diligent, more intelligent, and harder working than most. (really??)

Finally, Doug said…

“That’s tough luck for the ne’er-do-wells, the mooches, and the slackers. If you’re poor, you made your bed. Now, you sleep in it. And, yes, I hear the whines about “bad luck.” You make your own luck over the course of a lifetime. In fact, the bread generally goes to the wise, the race to the swift, and the battle to the strong. At least in a free market. ”

(I had to pull this one out, Doug!)

That’s what justice is all about…” ???

For some reason, I thought Justice in a free market was about (the free hand” making sure those who are most cunning, swiftest and strongest also have some integrity to justify their success in the market.

Otherwise, it is all just political bullshit to rationalize why the rest of us must test to determine who’s best to be useful when behests and requests are assessed by the blest. (Misspelling intended.)

You make a lot of rational sense, Doug. But, some of this seems to be from a fairly lofty position from which I do not see.

[A sincere and creative critique like that from a former data analyst/technical writer ought to be worth that hundred bucks to TBP if you haven’t already sent it, Doug.]

M G
M G

I tried to do a final edit… here is the line I added after the first quote.

Manipulated on a cosmic scale? What does that mean other than paying some sort of homage to the Space Force and the Elon Musketeers out there in La La Land?

I was a teenage sex fiend (EC)
I was a teenage sex fiend (EC)

Is The Joker some kind of MK Ultra project?

Hardscrabble Farmer
Hardscrabble Farmer

Solving poverty is like solving air. It’s not a problem, it’s a fixture.

All that aside, she is not only painful to look at, she is next to impossible to listen to.

Nothing but empty platitudes and complete denial of the one thing that she never mentions that is perhaps the most important factor in generational poverty; low IQ.

M G
M G

Oh, I agree… and she has the potential to be a bit of the butchish sort, though that seems irrelevant to the topic at hand.

Or is it?

What you call “generational poverty” the social scientists label as “cultural poverty.” When a culture of poverty exists, dependency becomes a profitable trait. Government programs create the culture of poverty more efficiently than any other system. In one generation (1964 until 1984) any progress toward expanding the middle class boundaries to include a more diverse community was killed by forced desegregation (busing) and the industrialization of the cities, followed by what is commonly referred to as white flight in academia.

I think the sexual revolution coupled with the psychiatric and psychedelic movements during the sixties and that gave birth to all sorts of mental disorders and psychopathic behaviors glorified by a Free and Willing Press Corps prostituting the meaning of Free Speech. Call it Marxist control of media or call it what it is… the GREED of the gatekeepers at every entry to that upper echelon which we all refer to as THEY.

Why did pornography become so commonplace in the 1970s? Well, it was because ratings were lagging, I imagine, so, in order to titillate a viewing audience there needed to be more foul language, sexualized themes and pornographic content masquerading as humor. There was also a growing fascination with the macabre at that time… Think Stephen King and Anne Rice… two of the creepiest and most successful authors that ever scribbled a bestseller on a napkin over cocktails. They paved the way for J.K. Rowling, though she will never admit it.

The 70s not only created crazy people; it glorified them!

Of course, attempts to institutionalize and control the more maniacal among us brought Geraldo and Jane to rescue them from their Cuckoo’s Nests. By 1974, state mental institutions were on the way “out.” Where did all those people go? So, yes… a lot of them are in generational poverty, but some of it tracks back to the strange generation in which I grew up. I think you know what I mean, though you experienced Grenada and I only saw it on TeeVee in a dormitory.

However, the arguments she uses are exactly the ones heard in academic circles I once traveled. And, are why no one should send your children to college unless you know the curriculum and faculty.

e.d. ott
e.d. ott

Gee, the fucking vampires are real.
Another good reason to hoard the silver, reloading equipment, and antibiotic creams.

Frank
Frank

A science fiction author explored the stultifying effects that long life will have on a culture.
She made some interesting observations.
I remember following a link (but can’t remember where I found it) that the law of averages will eventually catch up to everyone, even if they never age. I think the accidents/murders/wars/new diseases would limit things to one thousand years at most. A long life, but not eternal.

ordo ab chao
ordo ab chao

It’s called transhumanism, and you can bet the farm ‘living forever without Jesus Christ’ is the goal of the Luciferian freemasons that own this nation……..including Trump.

“It is an ancient hope that is meant to be fulfilled”….Murikan president GW Bush

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SGQneayWFc

annuit coeptis novus ordo seclorum <—-==

Ingsoc
Ingsoc

If rich people are the only ones that can take advantage of life extension to start with, I’d say that’s wonderful. And probably the way it should be…….The rich will be, and should be, first in line for living forever.

Social Darwinism, eugenics.

Lebowski
Lebowski

And to think all I want to see before I die is silver and gold as money

I was a teenage sex fiend (EC)
I was a teenage sex fiend (EC)

Lebo, it won’t make a bit of difference. Only the rich will have gold and the poor will only come within a few yards sniffing distance of silver. It is a delusion to want such a thing. You might as well wish to see women in burkas before you die. Unless your plan is to live forever, you sly dog.

Hardscrabble Farmer
Hardscrabble Farmer

Everything else they promised has turned out so well it’s hard to imagine this one won’t be every bit as successful as say, the war on drugs or curing cancer.

They reason like children. Never a comment on what living indefinitely might do to say, oh I don’t know, the human mind? And why would anything designed to live a lifespan desire to alter Nature herself? To what end and for what purpose?

Thank God I’m able to see this for what it is- the fever dreams of corrupt minds with serious Daddy issues.

I was a teenage sex fiend (EC)
I was a teenage sex fiend (EC)

Extreme wealth and unlimited life removes the entire meaning and purpose of living. Those that lived before the flood, lived so long that their minds became corrupted.

M G
M G

They are really that insane. I suspect there are already treatments available to those with power and access (it isn’t always about dollars) that are not shared with all of humanity.

How is Whosie Susie?

Anonymous
Anonymous

Exhibit ‘A’: Henry Kissinger

Aodh Macraynall
Aodh Macraynall

More bull-shit from a very intelligent man. Believe your common sense when it tells you that the rich will not soon cheat death, but soon will be dead. I notice even he doesn’t put a lot of stock in this horse-shit. “According to Doug Casey, matter, energy, space, and time will “soon be manipulated on a cosmic scale”… thanks to rapid advances in technology.” He is not talking about anything scientific he is talking about magick and the aims of every occultist and their enablers of whom I have heard. Yes, I’m sure George Soros is looking very closely into this and may be investing money in this area, but Nimrod is perennial. It makes him no less evil because he is using ‘scientific methods’ to achieve these goals. As far as the ethical considerations go; “But if I’m going to live for another 100 years or 1,000 years, I’m going to reorient what I do with my life. I’ll have a reason to want the world to be better in the future, other than just good karma.”; how about planning for a better society for your children, your grandchildren and your great-grandchildren? If you are not lucky enough to have these, then how about providing for the benefit of your people. The idea that recognizably ethical values will be created by concentrating on the extension of my life is an illustration of the foolishness of individualism, of which, Doug Casey is a prime proponent. Prove me wrong!

c1ue
c1ue

Yes, the theories are nice – the realities have yet to be proven.
Among other things: people are living a lot longer overall, and wealthy people have always lived longer than average. But that’s entirely a function of health care and stress, nothing to do with technology.

KaD
KaD

So generally speaking the most corrupt, self serving and evil people will live here, forever. They can have it.

Anonymous
Anonymous

Don’t worry … they’re designing their own personal hells. We’ll leave them to it.

On The Beach
On The Beach

Growing bulletproof skin might be a good idea while they are cheating death.

Old Timer
Old Timer

For the most part, society has lost it’s soul. Doug Casey is a very sad yet strong reminder.

doug
doug

Never bullshit a bullshitter……

ordo ab chao
ordo ab chao

“You make your own luck over the course of a lifetime. In fact, the bread generally goes to the wise, the race to the swift, and the battle to the strong.”

Why doesn’t this surprise me? Just to set the record straight:

“I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.

For man also knoweth not his time: as the fishes that are taken in an evil net, and as the birds that are caught in the snare; so are the sons of men snared in an evil time, when it falleth suddenly upon them.”

Ecc. 9:11, 12

Doug Casey is using the demonrat method of altering the truth, only he isn’t just changing a memo !

annuit coeptis novus ordo seclorum <—–== The god to foolish men like Doug Casey

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