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To the New Grads-
Life ain't MTV and Beer ads.
Welcome to the real world.
Hope you listened.

It says in the article that Pixar made the "top-grossing 'Finding Nemo' and 'Madagascar' movies."

Uhmm. Wasn't Madagascar Dreamworks? I hate it when the press spouts off stuff without looking it up.

Dot on. It is the fact that life is limited that gives it value.

Contrary to the article, "Madagascar" was released by Pixar's rival, Dreamworks.

MDN Magic Word: anything - as in "Can't they fact check anything???"

I think Steve needs to write his own biography before he dies. He seems to have a lot of wisdom.

OK, this is going to sound a little wacky to those not involved in leading edge biosciences, but don't assume that the current human lifespan will stay unchanged over the next 30-40 years. Over the course of that span, it is quite possible or even likely that we will see major breakthroughs that extend human life substantially. They are likely to make the incremental lifespan increases of the last 30-40 years look like nothing.
SJ's observations are still excellent, though, since there will still be SOME limits.

"And that was when he founded Pixar Studios, which created the first-ever computer animated feature film, "Toy Story," in 1995, and more recently released the top-grossing "Finding Nemo" and "Madagascar" movies."

Uhm Madagascar - someone missed that in editing.

Oops - those other posts weren't there yet - sorry for the dup comments - great minds and all of that I guess....or more like an obvious blunder

It must be great for Steve to have a company that produces such top-notch stuff (Pixar) that people automatically assume that "if it's good, it had to come from Pixar"

Steve sure didn't regret those strippers from Thailand he saw about 10 years ago.

Extending lifespan is another one of those "we could, but should we" things. If there's no improvement in quality of life, why live another twenty years? We've made great strides in keeping people alive, but we haven't figured out how to keep them living.

Bio,

Interested to hear what area of biosciences you are in. While technology is truly making remarkable inroads into the causes of death, you must admit that it's a case of "if one thing does not kill us, another will". As an example, my wife is a cancer researcher. Her previous company came out with a drug that has remarkable effects on lung cancer. Let's say that her company saves all the lung cancer patients from dying of lung cancer. There are still many other cancers out there. Contrary to popular belief, every cancer is different and there will be no one cure-all for cancer. So, we'd have to have a cure for every cancer to dramatically increase life by getting rid of that obstacle.

Now, look at all of the other life issues such as heart disease, dementia, neurological diseases, etc. Even if you can help people to live to be 150 years old, the quality of life may not be there. I don't want to be 150 and have no organs, not be able to walk, have no memory, etc. Quality of life is more important than quantity of life.

You also have to take into account the fact that smokers and drinkers will continue to exist and to damage their bodies. As you know, smoking raises the chance of every cancer, as well as heart disease and organ degeneration. Drinking has nearly as many issues. These vices will continue to exist. Then you have to take into account the general laziness of the human population. This means minimal exercise, which also contributes to bodily degeneration.

I'm not disagreeing with you that life spans will be extended over the course of the next century and beyond. I just don't believe that, during my lifetime, we'll see the average human lifespan increased to 100 years or anything.

My 2 cents. What was the story about again?...

No hardware announcements??

Dear Bio Sciencist,
we can read in the Psalm (VIII century b.C.): "septuaginta anni est vita hominis super terram, aut in valentibus octoginta, et maior pars eorum labor et dolor" (Man lives seventy years, perhaps eighty...). Can you please repeat how things will be in 2035 or 2045?

Jimbo and Bio,

we should all move this to another forum, but, Bio is probably right in that we will find ways to make the body last longer. Jimbo is definetely right, I see people daily whose bodies keep ticking who don't know what day it is.

but our lifestyles are the biggest problem. there is no longer a disease called "adult onset diabetes" becuase so many children have it. we are obese. we eat poorly, we don't exercise. when we need to lose weight we look to atkins and south beach because it's fast and quick, when calorie restriction and exercise is what is needed.

our body systems were designed for a hard life. and we live in an easy world. food is plentiful.

my two cents.

Professor,

My grandfather lived to be 92 years old. My neighbor is over 100. What does your Psalm say about that?

Jimbo,

Actually, Bio Scientist may be correct. I completely agree with you that people tend to lump (wow! innapropriate phraseology!) the many different kinds of cancer under one catchall term, but with the ongoing knowledge explosion in the life sciences, no one can predict what will be possible even ten years from now.

I thank you for your insightful and important comment: the quality of life is infinitely more important than its span, but it is entirely possible that with new knowledge, tools, and therapies, we may see life extension in our lifetimes. And not just long lives (perhaps longer by orders of magnitude), but healthy, disease-free lives. This of course opens entire new areas of ethical discussion. For instance, who will benefit from advances in life extension? Only the rich and influential? Then there is the argument of whether the possible is desirable. Interesting questions, and for the last ten years I've felt that they will loom vastly more important as the possibility dawns.

Jimbo von jinben,
my brother died when hi was two years old, and one of my friends when she was fourteen. Then... But I agree with you, the essential thing is the software, stupid!

" ... he founded Pixar ..."

Actually, I believe Pixar was created by George Lucas and was sold to Steve Jobs for $10 million. Probably the biggest steal in corporate history.

dburney wrote- "Extending lifespan is another one of those "we could, but should we" things. If there's no improvement in quality of life, why live another twenty years? We've made great strides in keeping people alive, but we haven't figured out how to keep them living."

Spoken truly like someone who is under forty, probably under thirty. Let's hear you say those same things when you are 80. Don't get me wrong, I am not giving you guff. I used to not really believe in my own death too. That changes and so does your attitude- at least as long as you are still getting around ok.

We are seeing longer average lifespans because we are optimizing the safety and nourishment provided by the environments we live in. We are also finding ways to repair incidental damages or conditions that interfere with normal function. But we haven't really had any effects on the aging process. The organism has a built-in lifespan, and external forces (short of selective breeding) are unlikely to extend that (for the forseeable technological future, anyways). And besides, by allowing generally non-beneficial traits to survive and breed through modern medicine will only weaken the gene pool by removing the effects of natural selection. So ultimately we may begin to see a decline in the average life-span.

But really, it won't matter. Average life span doesn't mean anyone in particular will live that long (you, me, or anyone reading this), only that somebody will. You never know when the bullet, car, cancer, tsunami, or germ will get you first. So live like its important to do it right each day.

MW "under", as in six feet

"Actually, I believe Pixar was created by George Lucas and was sold to Steve Jobs for $10 million. Probably the biggest steal in corporate history."

Correct. Pixar apparently was intended to be a software company (selling Renderman), and their early short films were made to demonstrate the software. Lucas needed cash for a divorce settlement, so he sold his birthright for a mess of pottage, and the rest is cinematic history. Who could have imagined that this redheaded stepchild would one day be powerful enough to give Disney the finger?

Steve Did found Pixar! The Animation unit Lucas sold was
named Wife's Alimony payment!

The "we could, but should we" question is a good one. If we suddenly double the lifespan of an individual, it opens up a whole can of worms:

- Can the individual continue working, or are they on Social Security?
- What will the retirement age be boosted to?
- Are there enough Wal-Mart greeter jobs available for older folks?
- Will they build more Furrs Cafeteria locations?

In all seriousness, imagine the population continuing to grow due to this phenomenon. Will the Pope continue to preach against birth control? Will some religions continue to preach that their congregation needs to have big families? Water, food and land will become even more scarce and costly. More cars means more polution, which in turn means a more toxic environment which in turn means more ways to have an early death!

Man, this is much more fun than talking about processors!!!

'Dont waste time'. What the hell does that mean. What a dumbass remark. Jobs has started the crazy phase in his life.

There is no limit on lifespan. Biblical trusting folks can refer to Methuselah as an example of extreme longevity.

The really old ones drop out and come around again, it gets tedious when people say wow you're over 100, you look great, how do you do it. Easier to move to a new community and change name and drop 30 years off the running total.

Ingredients for a long life:

1) Wisdom
2) Clean air
3) Clean water
4) Wholesome food

All are provided by nature, not by man*.

When man works with nature things are good but man is too arrogant and thinks he knows better things get bad. Big changes to the environment harm man.

1) GM foods
2) Force fed foods, animal and vegetable
3) Bringing new materials in to our environment
4) Vastly increasing the scale of existing materials in our environment

Biggest hidden threat, radio waves; mobile phones, WiFi, Bluetooth, Radar - all are killers.

Equation for Biblical folks who understand maths.

Jesus = son of man
Jesus = son of God

Therefore man = God

God = nature - read which ever religious text you prefer and substitute God (Lord, Father, Master etc) for Nature (Mother Nature, Planet Earth etc).

Only the wise glimpse how much they do not understand.

Gandalf, you gotta stop doing the 'shrooms during working hours, man.

k
"waste time" = time spent checking Windows for ....

Does anybody have the recording of Steve's keynote speech at Stanford? If you do, please post it cuz I'd luv to listen to the entire speech.

Thanks!

I know... this is old news. But I have the entire speech in audio format here on my site:

http://www.wiredatom.com/jobs_stanford_speech/index.html

Pass it on and enjoy!

How long our bodies will last really isn't very interesting. My mother died at 99, but for the last few years she hag been simultaneously living in now, my childhood and her childhood. What Steve Jobs was talking about was the life of the mind. And he wasn't the only one.

Among other things he said:

"Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything – all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart."

This may sound strange to some people who regard death as a taboo subject, but it sounded very familiar to me.

For example, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart said:

"Since death (take my words literally) is the true goal of our lives, I have made myself so well acquainted with this true and best friend of man that the idea of it no longer has terrors for me, but rather much that is tranquil and comforting. And I thank God that he has granted me the good fortune to obtain the opportunity of regarding death as the key to our true happiness. I never lie down in bed without considering that, young as I am, perhaps on the morrow I may be no more. Yet not one of those who know me could say that I am morose or melancholy, and for this I thank my Creator daily and wish heartily that the same happiness may be given to my fellowmen"

In Androcles And The Lion, George Bernard Shaw has this dialog:

LAVINIA:. Captain: you have been face to face with death.

THE CAPTAIN: Not with certain death, Lavinia. Only death in battle, which spares more men than death in bed. What you are facing is certain death. You have nothing left now but your faith in this craze of yours: this Christianity. Are your Christian fairy stories any truer than our stories about Jupiter and Diana in which, I may tell you, I believe no more than the Emperor does, or any educated man in Rome?

LAVINIA: Captain: all that seems nothing to me now. I'll not say that death is a terrible thing; but I will say that it is so real that when it comes close, all the imaginary things - all the stories, as you call them - fade into mere dreams beside that inexorable reality. I know now that I am not dying for stories or dreams.

In The Apocryphon of James, found among the Nag Hammadi manuscripts, Jesus is quoted as saying:

5.3 "Become seekers of death, therefore, like the dead who are seeking life, for what they seek is manifest to them. So what can be of concern to them?

5.4 When you inquire into the subject of death, it will teach you about election.

5.5 "In truth I say to you, none will be saved who are afraid of death, for [God's] Domain belongs to those who put themselves [close] to death.

Gautama Buddha meditated until he was close to starving to death and then became enlightened. The training method of the Rinzai sect of Zen can be analyzed as requiring the chela perform an action so taboo that it would normally require suicide before the training master can acknowledge an experience of satori. While the Buddhists don't specifically say that a close approach to death is required for enlightenment it is easy to see in what they do say.

In The Maltese Falcon, Dashiell Hammett describes an episode where a man named Flitcraft comes close to death and first walks away from his life then walks back in to a copy of it. Hammett is the only one to describe a situation where an event of the kind I call "death and transfiguration" fails in the long run because it happens to someone without the discipline to take advantage of it.
Hammett did not start to write until he was diagnosed with tuberculosis and given a short time to live. Luke does describe Jesus as saying that when one does exorcise an unclean spirit it sometimes comes back to the clean house with worse friends; e.g., sometimes an episode of post traumatic stress can
produce a psychpath.

You can read more at http://socevol.karleklund.net

I have been wondering, over the past couple of years, how we can replace the primitive practices we consider religious with something globally egalitarian, ecologically responsible and consistent with creativity. Maybe all we have to do is go on using iPods and Macs.

this is hilarious. why are you people wasting you precious lives debating over the inevitable?