Billionaire entrepreneur Peter Thiel has some big ideas for the future.
The co-founder of PayPal (PYPL) and Palantir Technologies (PLTR) , who's worth north of $8 billion, hopes that humanity will continue advancing at a rapid clip -- even after he dies.
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In May, Thiel appeared on the "Honestly with Bari Weiss" podcast and offered his thoughts on everything from Florida's rising cost of living, the upcoming 2024 presidential election, and freezing dead people.
"If you buy a house in Miami today versus just three years ago, you’re paying four times as much for a monthly mortgage payment," he told Weiss, revealing he'd considered moving operations to Florida but had difficulty justifying the costs.
Peter Thiel Wants to Do This Odd Thing When He Dies
It's difficult to say where Miami home prices might be in, say, another 60 years. But Peter Thiel plans to be frozen solid in a cryonic chamber in the name of science.
“Is it true that you’re signed up to be cryonically preserved when you die so that you might be brought back to life in the future?” Weiss asked Thiel.
“Yes, but I think of it more as an ideological statement,” Thiel responded, adding, "I don’t necessarily expect it to work, but I think it’s the sort of thing we’re supposed to try to do."
Thiel added that he'd probably enlist the help of the nonprofit company Alcor, which touts 1,417 frozen members currently.
“I’m not convinced it works,” Thiel said. “It’s more, I think we need to be trying these things. It’s not there yet.”
What is Cryonics?
Cryonics is the practice of deep freezing someone who has recently died in the hope of bringing them back and reintegrating them in society when technology allows.
Alcor, which has been in operation since 1972, has 5 basic missions:
- Maintain the current patients in biostasis.
- Place current and future members into biostasis (when and if needed).
- Eventually restore to health and reintegrate into society all patients in Alcor’s care.
- Fund research into developing more cost effective and reliable means for 1-3 above.
- Provide public education as a means of fostering growth to support the goals of 1, 2, 3, 4 above.
