"What is Alphabet? Alphabet is mostly a collection of companies. The largest of which, of course, is Google."

"This newer Google is a bit slimmed down, with the companies that are pretty far afield of our main Internet products contained in Alphabet instead. What do we mean by far afield? Good examples are our health efforts: Life Sciences (that works on the glucose-sensing contact lens), and Calico (focused on longevity).  Fundamentally, we believe this allows us more management scale, as we can run things independently that aren’t very related. Alphabet is about businesses prospering through strong leaders and independence. In general, our model is to have a strong CEO who runs each business, with Sergey and me in service to them as needed."

Enthuses Larry Page.

The link on Calico goes to: 

We’re tackling aging, one of life’s greatest mysteries.

Calico is a research and development company whose mission is to harness advanced technologies to increase our understanding of the biology that controls lifespan. We will use that knowledge to devise interventions that enable people to lead longer and healthier lives. Executing on this mission will require an unprecedented level of interdisciplinary effort and a long-term focus for which funding is already in place.

Interesting word selection, Executing. This better not be the death panels sneaking in. Buzzphrases to watch out for: 1. controlling lifespan, 2. longer and healthier. You may look at "longer and healthier" and focus on longer, but I see longer linked to healthier and feel that there is some unknown algorithm wherein the desirability of length relates to a degree of healthiness. 



Don't let your enthusiasm outrun your skepticism.