In any case, it's nice to know that Google set its sights to "challenge ... aging and associated diseases". Apple's Tim Cook:
For too many of our friends and family, life has been cut short or the quality of their life is too often lacking. Art is one of the crazy ones who thinks it doesn’t have to be this way.
I haven't read the HN comments, nor do I intend to, but it doesn't seem particularly mind-boggling to me that many people are more concerned by the size of the advantage-gulf between them and more powerful humans than they are by the absolute level of advantage they enjoy.
After all, for most of our lives more powerful humans have been the biggest threat we have to worry about, and the magnitude of the threat they pose has been proportional to the size of that advantage-gulf.
I'm not saying it's a rational response given the specifics of this situation, merely that it's an understandable habit of thought.
You're making predictions about something you could just observe. This is the comment thread. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6406084
In it, the primary critic of Catico, bowlofpetunias, considers themself among the elite it benefits. That is, what you believed to have happened did not happen.
I have met people who explicitly say they prefer a lower gap between them and the better-offs over a better absolute level for themselves. IIRC they were more concerned about 'fairness' than about what the powerful might do to them. They also believed that most would agree with them (I believe the opposite).
Google's announcement, Time magazine rather sensationalist headline.
In any case, it's nice to know that Google set its sights to "challenge ... aging and associated diseases". Apple's Tim Cook:
For too many of our friends and family, life has been cut short or the quality of their life is too often lacking. Art is one of the crazy ones who thinks it doesn’t have to be this way.
One more step towards "world optimization".