The world’s largest prize: interview with @peterdiamandis and Jamie Justice

Want a chance to win part of a $101 million prize pot? All you need to do is restore an older person’s function by 10+ years and you could be in with a chance of winning the new XPRIZE Healthspan! I spoke to two of the project leads, Peter H. Diamandis and Jamie Justice, to find out whether we really can move the needle on this, why they made this a prize rather than just handing $101 million to longevity scientists, why more billionaires aren’t doing this, and, most importantly…why one hundred and one million dollars?

Thanks to Peter and Jamie, and @xprize for making this video possible!

Chapters

00:00 Introduction
01:24 Why $101 million?
02:20 What do you need to do to win?
05:27 What kinds of interventions are you expecting?
09:00 What’s the baseline?
11:26 Where did the money come from?
13:28 Why aren’t billionaires more interested in aging?
17:14 Challenging ethical questions
24:26 Why do this as a prize?
28:20 Questions from social media
32:48 Conclusion

Credits

And finally…

[DrAndrewSteele]

Thanks in advance to anyone who spots anything, and hope you enjoy the video. :)

[bobbypovah]

Hi - I am a 75 yr old grandma who thinks this is hugely beneficial lifespan trajectory. I hope that in 7 years I will be around to test the product out. I spend a good portion of my time working hard on maintaining my body and mind only to see that the aging process is relentless. Hope you will keep us informed Andrew on its progress.

[squamish]

I'm 45. Time passes quickly these days. We all would like more of it. Bring it on.

[altiarissuralis]

Deserves more views. I've shared as much as I could! Keep making content.

[SirTenenbaum]

Like Jamie suggested, please do regular interviews with them after each milestone rather than waiting seven years for another interview!

[Dogo.R]

Ill make a guess or bet now, that if the prize is claimed it will related to negating damage from stress.

For example reducing the stress response, reducing damage from stress, educational techniques to change your mental outlook on things to lower stress, ect.

[zlatimirrangelov]

Hey Andrew. Can you make a video on CZI? I love your work.

[Dogo.R]

Cognitive improvement feels super weird... because neurons effectively never replace themselves.
Its not like the rest of your body which is replacing itself over time and seemingly doing a worse job of it over time.

I feel like all this research is about making the body replace itself better so that the neurons... you... can be supported by the body for longer and so the neurons (you) have access to a more functional body.

[peterz]

Wealth/Donation Disconnect: I have worked among a lot of people who have been able to retire comfortably, travel and so on, though not wealthy. They have no problem buying new expensive vehicles or spending many thousands keeping up a larger than needed home, and so on. Many are in terrible physical shape, not even trying to eat well and keep their weight normal. They have the means to improve their health enormously just by eating well and exercising modestly - they are not stupid people. Ten years of healthier life could be added now with what is known about food (and exercise), but most are in the grips of food addiction driven by a corrupt food system which, as a start, needs to be regulated to stop poisoning people.

[kwinvdv]

I wonder if some participants will look into strengthening the skeleton. Because recently I read and article saying that quite a few older people die from complications caused by a broken hip.

[peterm]

Concentrating on an increase in lifespan gets to the core of the ageing problem whereas concentrating on health span might ignore the fundamental ageing process

[squamish]

"Billionaires: you still can't take it with you." It's amazing how money is so addictive that these people seem unable to part with some of it in order to continue having money for longer!

[fatboydim.]

I think its more a less a dead cert that effective interventions are coming. Moore's law is continuing and the arrival of AGI/ASI and then Quantum computing. I personally believe that cellular reprogramming is likely to be the most potent.

[atherum]

Maybe? The possibly of Reversing aging is still a Maybe? It has to be 100% possible

[keithgarrett]

The excuse I hear most often is that it is impossible. That aging and its effects are immutable.
People have been indoctrinated with this notion from the beginning of learning.

[dbpook]

I’m hoping Bryan Johnson enters his Blueprint program as a competitor in this race. If his N of 1 experiment produces bio marker improvements in others as good as his it might have a good chance.

[Fehr]

101 million is a drop in the bucket of feeding a country as big and wealthy as America but if we want to increase the odds of more people living longer the money could be better spent improving food quality for the poorest Americans….or Canadians, I’m Canadian.

[vjr]

hmm i take it back, now that i listened to little bit of this, can definitely restore function, no question there, considering how much improves systemically in response to endurance training or muscular fitness, yeah 4 sure, this is very doable, but this is not what people would think of as "reverse aging".

[vjr]

lol ez, not possible, can probably cheese some crappy biomarkers, but no, not possible.