I watched a very good presentation by Aubrey de Grey on TED. I am going to embedd the video below and then talk a little bit about these thoughts.

So this is amazing to think about, to say the least. If I could live to 150 years of age what would I do with this time? Learn languages, become a yogi, work towards Enlightenment and watch the Cubs win another series?

I first became familiar with Aubrey when I joined a site called BetterHumans and began to read his comments on the forums and his papers. He struck me as a pragmatic optimist. He could see that there is a chance we, as a race, could attain immortality, and he had the tools to do his part.

This all made me wonder why aren’t humans immortal already. I mean, you can look around at the world and realize that biodiversity is wonderful and obviously brilliant, so why not an organism that can live forever? Doesn’t that seem like the goal? I don’t think it is actually.

The goal of every organism I know of is simple: reproduce. Create offspring and ensure that your genus survives the drought, or the winter or the predator or whatever. So why would your individual genes try to create the super-being, one that would live forever if left alone.

I know that I don’t want to live forever, not in this world of suffering. But I would take an extra 60 years to get myself ready for the bardo if I don’t wake up first.

I wonder how many CEO’s would consider the companies they run as compassionate? How many corporations would be classified as ‘right’, as in, the Eightfold Path right?

1. Right View
2. Right Intention
3. Right Speech
4. Right Action
5. Right Livelihood
6. Right Effort
7. Right Mindfulness
8. Right Concentration.

I won’t go in to what the Eightfold Path means, because I am not a teacher and because there are very eloquent commentaries on the net already. (links: Google, big view) And I like this answer that Za Choeje Rinpoche gave:

Q: What is the Eightfold Path?

Rinpoche: The Eightfold Path is right view, right part, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration. The right view is understanding the world and oneself in a realistic way. Right part is positive ideas or notions within our mental state. Right speech is speaking with respectful truth and for the welfare of others. Right action is acting with the respect for life, property, and relationships. Right livelihood is living virtuously and meditatively. Right effort is cultivating positive attitudes in our study, and practice. Right mindfulness is maintaining full awareness of our inner and outer environment. Right concentration is observing an object with full attention.

from A Buddhist Library at this link

OK, so back to my initial musings about companies and business in general. Looking around at the market place today I am hard pressed to find companies that take a respectful approach to consumers. Maybe that is the reason though, companies today do not see people as a ‘person’, but rather as numbers, just ‘consumers’.

I wonder what kind of company Shakyamuni Buddha would start today? Healthcare, nutrition, media maybe, I don’t know. But I would invest, and I bet others would too.

That is the answer! I got it. We need to invest in companies that practice compassion. I just Googled that and found some companies who do not test on animals, so that is a start.

The I saw this book in the search results and read about it at Amazon: Compassionate Capitalism: How Corporations Can Make Doing Good an Integral Part of Doing Well. How cool is that? Gonna buy it.

Enough ranting today, I just think we can do better. Instead of spending $339 million dollars on another F-22 Raptor, maybe we can build a school?