Venture Capitalist Promises $1M To First Person To Reach 123rd Birthday

Nice article from FORBES http://www.forbes.com/sites/sarahhedgecock/2015/04/21/venture-capitalist-promises-1m-to-first-person-to-reach-123rd-birthday/?fb_action_ids=960326357335123&fb_action_types=og.shares

The goal of the prize is twofold: to get the public interested in longevity research and to motivate people to live longer lives. While progress toward the first goal is plausible and even likely with the publicity that may surround the prize, the second is more dubious. There is some evidence for a modicum of “death elasticity” when it comes to financial decisions; a 2003 paper reported that some people seemed to live a bit longer in the face of changes to estate-tax law. But the effect, if there was one, was small, and the authors conceded that the possibility of doctored death dates could not be dismissed entirely.

Why longevity? Why not something toward which competitors can more consciously work? Kaminskiy claims it’s because aging is the biggest long-term problem humans face today, and the one with the least predictable consequences. “Everyone has heard about dangerous artificial intelligence due to Elon Musk, but the risks incurred by high life expectancy are not clear yet,” he explained via email. “I realized that investing in aging research will have the highest impact on global peace, sustainability and economic growth.”

As of this writing, the world’s oldest living person is nearly 116 years old, giving Kaminskiy at least seven years before he doles out the cash – and if past records are any indication, it’ll be a while longer. The oldest person to have ever lived was France’s Jeanne Louise Calment, who died in 1997 at 122 years, 164 days old. Calment famously outlived her lawyer, who bought her old apartment, agreeing to give her money for it each month until her death, on the assumption that she would die first and the domicile would be his.