Peter Thiel on the decline of scientific ambition and our fading belief in the future

Peter Thiel says Alzheimer’s research has gone nowhere in 50 years because scientists are stuck on the wrong idea and afraid to take risks. For fatal diseases, he believes we need much bolder experiments. He remembers when people still believed in big futures—like in the early PayPal days, when his co-founder hosted a cryonics “freezing party.” Back then, some still believed science could beat death. Now, younger generations don’t even believe it can fix basic problems. That loss of belief is the real crisis.