More information here: http://abcnews.go.co...=3568278&page=1
Could be very interesting. I am looking forward to it.
Edit: Here it is on YouTube:
Part 1:
Part 2:
Part 3:
Part 4:
Part 5:
Part 6:
Edited by Live Forever, 12 October 2007 - 09:35 PM.
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lol, that was one of the first things I thought of when I saw Moore was doing a movie on healthcare awhile back.I would also like to add how funny I thought it was every time Stossel took a shot at Moore's fatness. He did it several times. haha
Posted 16 September 2007 - 12:40 AM
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Posted 23 September 2007 - 12:32 PM
Nefastor, does the French government's support for medical research match its support for healthcare? How many other French immortalists or transhumanists do you know, and have you considered organizing them? What would the average person in France think about curing aging? And can you imagine a "War on Aging" ever being pursued by the French government? The longevity dividend would compensate for France's healthcare debt..
Posted 23 September 2007 - 09:54 PM
Posted 24 September 2007 - 04:00 AM
Posted 24 September 2007 - 08:35 AM
I like your novels.
So, do you think the French biomedical research establishment will embrace SENS?
Nefastor--thanks--I still want to move to France
My kids could get their college paid for. I'm not looking forward to the massive bill it will be to put each of my children through college.... (even with having them pay part, and what I pay being contingent upon their grades)
Posted 24 September 2007 - 02:58 PM
A lot of interesting questions !
For one thing, you should know France doesn't have an equivalent to the US NIH : in France, hospitals are ALL government run (private hospitals are called "clinics"). Large hospitals in France are actually part of (or acting as) universities, and are integrated with a medical school. French med schools attract so many students only the best 10% (roughly) are actually allowed to study past the first year. I attended and failed first year because my grade average was below 80%. That alone should give you an idea of the level of excellence in these schools. For instance I was taught quantum physics and quark spin just so I'd understand how MRI scanners work. The teacher came from the French equivalent to the DoE or NIS.
Basic medical studies in France take 5 years, plus 3 years of internship, usually in the hospital part of the school. The school's faculty are also the department heads of the hospital, and/or researchers. As such, whatever is taught in the schools is the absolute state of the medical arts.
These large facilities are where most of the French government-run medical research takes place. Scientists there work for a salary and do not need to spend much time looking for funding, so they are more free to experiment with controversial stuff. Speaking of which, because religion has no place in French politics, there is no ban on stem cell research here.
So, to answer your question, the French government doesn't "support" medical research : it actually funds and runs pretty much all of it. For the most part, privately-funded research is concentrated in the pharmaceutical companies like Boiron (and the French branches of US companies like Pfizer). This is something no one even thinks about, in France : it's a fact of life, like air and gravity. At election times, there may be a discussion of how much of the budget a candidate will allocated to health. On occasion, there will be a news announcement that new medical technology has been developed and is being deployed, and the list of hospitals where it will be available first, so people who need it know where to find it.
I remember the latest announcement was for a special real-time MRI scanner that can detect and map brain activity. It's used in Alzheimer research. Last week our current President took part in a debate and discussed his own views on Alzheimer research and the progress we're making.
Considering President Sarkozy is quite the warrior, you might call his attitude on the subject a "war on aging" (or at least its effects), although no one here would call it that ("war on" is a purely American thing ;-)
All in all, France takes prides in increasing the life expectancy of its citizen but there's no dedicated "war plan" for aging, and no one ever brings up the topic of immortality.
This brings me to another of your questions : I don't subscribe to the concept of longevity dividend. France, like I said, has increasing life expectancy. That translate in retired people enjoying their pensions a LOT longer than they used to. This, in turn, is starting to cause a serious deficit.
It's a total problem, really : on one end, CEO's and directors lay off tons of French people to open factories in, say, China (I believe you're familiar with the problem). I myself have once been replaced by a pair of Indian engineer (I was working for Texas Instruments, back then).
The problem comes from the fact that in France, for each employee, the employers pay about as much to the government in social taxes as the salary he gives the employee. And salaries in France are rather high (often higher than in the US, in my profession). When a job is moved to another country, government income decreases but it must still pay for the healthcare and pension of its senior citizen, the number of which constantly increases.
You can see the vicious circle, here :
- Less and less money comes in
- More and more money comes out
- Lives are longer but the legal age for retirement is still the same (roughly 60)
- And of course everyone wants a bigger pension, because the Euro has caused a tremendous increase in the cost of EVERYTHING, including food.
That's one of the biggest challenges my country faces today, perhaps THE biggest, and is being argued and debated over daily in every media. Luckily our new President is willing to do something about it.
As such, I think immortality will cause trouble, at least at the beginning : civilization will have to adapt to it. It may mean a number of things, such as colonizing space and terminating the concept of "money". But that's for another (excruciatingly long) post (sorry, that's my style ;-)
To end this novel I'll just add that I don't know any French immortalists, mostly for a lack of searching. Usually I'm also way too busy to organize anything in that area. But I'm sure there are many of us, if only because French people don't particularly like to die. Relatively few here believe in the Rapture, Heaven and Hell, but we do believe in enjoying life.
Nefastor
Posted 25 September 2007 - 02:39 PM
80% [:o]
and here I thought, I was smart. [glasses]
Posted 10 October 2007 - 09:05 PM
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Posted 12 October 2007 - 06:12 PM
That is true in some sense. Education has become overrated in many ways. However some companies do expect a college degree for certain positions no matter what your background expertise is. Though, i've probably learned more things online about many subjects than I ever did in college.Wing_girl, just have your kids learn online. If I had to go back to college right now....I wouldn't. The expense has climbed so high that there is no way anyone can expect to get a return on their investment in any reasonable period of time
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