Jeff Bezos Wants To Live Forever With Altos Lab's Help; Why Is He Cheating Death Anyway?

Even though Jeff Bezos is no longer the CEO of Amazon, he desires to live longer than the typical human. To that end, he's putting a lot of money into a firm that claims to be able to reverse aging. To put it another way, he wants to extend human life. As bizarre as it may sound, this is hardly Bezos' first or most outrageous quest of its type. The Amazon founder made headlines when he invested in a firm that wanted to build a gigantic clock in the middle of the desert that would only tick once per century and be built to last millennia.

According to MIT Technology Review, Bezos has invested some of his almost $200 billion wealth in a firm that is developing sophisticated cellular reprogramming technology to reverse the aging process. The goal of the study is to decipher the genetic blueprint for remaining young. Altos Labs is the brainchild of another billionaire, Yuri Milner. Milner is regarded as Russia's most powerful digital investor and was one of the early supporters of Facebook (per Screen Rant), Twitter, and Xiaomi. Altos Labs is rumored to be employing some of the most well-known cellular researchers with expertise in aging and reprogramming. As some might put it, the search for the legendary fountain of youth is on.

Jeff Bezos Cheating Death To Avoid Tax? Maybe!

Input Mag said Larry Page, Peter Thiel, and Larry Ellison are affluent individuals who have invested in anti-aging research. Last year, Bezos and Thiel invested in Unity Technologies, which hopes to develop anti-aging medicines. Meanwhile, Page, a co-founder of Google, has invested substantially in a startup named Calico.

Perhaps since death is one of the few things that money hasn't been able to overcome - at least not yet - the obsession with anti-aging is intriguing. People like Bezos, who can change whole sectors in their image and travel to the furthest reaches of the universe, are likely to believe that their money should also be able to battle aging.

Bezos has undergone a public image makeover in recent years, transitioning from a data-driven nerd to a solid corporate figure, as seen by his freshly shredded arms and fitted clothes. Combating aging seems to fit in with Amazon's aim to project a new public image that reflects its power.

Combating the consequences of aging may have some utility, especially as individuals age and become immobile, limiting their ability to enjoy life. However, others argue that billionaires like Bezos should not determine what causes to support; rather, he should be appropriately taxed and the whole people should have a role in these decisions. According to recent report obtained by ProPublica, Bezos and others employ complex strategies to avoid paying taxes on their vast fortunes.

Altos Lab Paying Money To Study How To Live Forever

Meanwhile, Altos Labs pays specialists a lot of money and gives them the chance to do an independent study without any commercial ambitions or pressure to create a product. In the early stages, one of the scientists connected with the Bezos-backed startup said the company seeks to understand rejuvenation and strive for "excellent science." When it comes to reversing the symptoms of aging, tinkering with an organism's makeup at the cellular level has shown conclusive results. Still, it has only been done on mice, and there were some significant adverse effects as well.

Altos Labs has even enlisted the help of a Nobel Laureate scientist to serve on its advisory board. Still, the path ahead will be difficult and long. According to cellular biology and genetics experts, clinical trials on human subjects are still a long way off, and developing a product that may reverse aging is much farther away. While the likelihood of success is unknown, the former Amazon CEO is clearly intrigued with the promise of living longer and in better health.

Check out more news and information on Aging in Science Times.