“Many of today’s tycoons refuse to get old”
THIS IS THE TAKE ON AGEING OF SOME OF THE MOST RICH AND POPULAR MEN OF THE MOMENT
In case you didn’t know, now you do. The annual list of the richest people in the world published by FORBES magazine includes fewer and fewer owners of large traditional companies. Among the top ten of the world there are no longer names belonging to oil companies, car companies or giant food chains; no Ford, General Motors, British Petroleum, Royal Dutch Shell, Carrefour or Cadbury’s. All the supreme tycoons of today belong to the field of technology and the computer age. Google, Amazon, Facebook, PayPal and an ever-expanding etcetera that includes everyone and everything prominently featured on the internet. Understandably, the creators of so much wealth want to live better and longer than the rest of human beings. Some have even come to believe that they are capable of achieving this through knowledge and programmes that will allow them to become centenarians in excellent physical and mental health. This would be the wish of many people – not only that of tech tycoons – but: are they really able to achieve this?
THE END OF OLD AGE, ILLNESS AND LACK OF STAMINA
Three of the richest men in the world: Jeff Bezos (the owner of Amazon and the richest man in the world until last year), Mark Zuckerberg (owner of Facebook, the richest young man in the world), and Peter Thiel (super venture capitalist) have dedicated and still dedicate notorious amounts of money in the research against ageing, mainly on very specific CELLULAR REJUVENATION programmes (Bezos) that could theoretically reverse disease, lack of stamina and the loss of physical and mental image. Zuckerberg, the young genius behind Facebook, who was already rich at the age of twenty, has asked himself the following decisive questions: How can we cure all diseases once and for all? What could allow us to live forever? How can we learn a million times more? Peter Thiel, a highly paid entrepreneur in his image, has founded several companies aimed at ending old age and disease and reversing the loss of physical and mental faculties.
ELON MUSK IS NOT TOO KEEN ON LIVING FOREVER
On his side, Elon Musk, currently the richest man in the world, a genius inventor of electric cars and ahead in the space race, is not a fan of the anti-aging discourse. Using logic he tells us: “I think we shouldn’t try to make people live too long. It would suffocate society, because people don’t change their minds. They simply die. If they don’t die, we would be stuck in an old and unchanging society that won’t move forward. I like to maintain exceptional health” he adds, “but I don’t fear death. I think it should come as a relief.”
The fact that would prove the aforementioned theory is that companies dedicated to combating ageing, either through combined diet and exercise programmes or stress control, or launching food supplements and systems that ensure a functional prolongation of existence, are growing very fast. These companies are the insurance of a new kind of business that seems to fight the contraction of the labour market and can become a useful instrument to maintain the balance between an attractive physical and mental image, exempt of diseases and resistant to the end. No more anticipated deaths, no more suffering. It would work for everyone.
