Google thinks we'll live to be 500 years old

Bill Maris, head of Google's investment arm, says humans will live to be 500-years-old in the future, while today's cancer treatments will soon seem "primitive" as scientists continue to hunt for cure

                                         

Humans will live to be 500-years-old, according to a top Google executive, who said the company was investing millions of dollars in life sciences to ensure this vision became a reality.

Bill Maris, a venture capitalist and the managing partner of Google Ventures, the internet giant's investment fund, said it had hired scientists as partners in order to identify start-ups that could cure cancer and make chemotherapy "seem primitive" within 20 years.

If you ask me today, is it possible to live to be 500? The answer is yes,

“We actually have the tools in the life sciences to achieve anything that you have the audacity to envision,” he said. “I just hope to live long enough not to die.”

Mr Maris said scientists had made huge advances in medicine over the past two decades.

“Twenty years ago, without genomics, you could only treat cancer with a poison,” said Mr Maris. “That’s really different from, ‘We can cure your cancer by reverse-engineering a stem cell.’ You can now legitimately invest in a company that could cure cancer.”

Google's investment arm, which employs 70 people, has increased its assets invested in life sciences from 6pc in 2013 to 36pc today, according to Bloomberg.

Mr Maris said it was his duty to invest in companies that could help people to live longer. “There are plenty of people, including us, that want to invest in consumer internet, but we can do more than that,” he said.

“There are a lot of billionaires in Silicon Valley, but in the end, we are all heading to the same place,” said Mr Maris. “If given the choice between making a lot of money or finding a way to make people live longer, what do you choose?”

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