
She founded SiriusXM, a religion and a biotech for starters - modfodder
http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/magazine/martine-rothblatt-she-founded-siriusxm-a-religion-and-a-biotech-for-starters/2014/12/11/5a8a4866-71ab-11e4-ad12-3734c461eab6_story.html
======
zanek
I lived across the street from United Thera. a few years ago and met Rothblatt
at a company party I walked into on the street. I googled her and read all the
things in the article and was amazed at her life story . This happened before
the party, as I was curious about the company right in front of my window. Was
great to talk with her about the insane amount of hard work she had to do to
save her daughter, etc. Everyone I met at UT said she was the best boss they
ever had. They have a very startup type vibe at United Thera, and the
buildings they constructed are amazing too ! Everytime I saw Rothblatt, there
would be a circle of people waiting to talk to her, and fawning over her.

Its great to see this years later on yCombinator

------
zaroth
A very interesting article, I just wish whatever ad plugins they have going
didn't constantly crash Chrome.

Those disembodied lungs are amazing. And incredibly creepy. The business plan
-- patching up donor lungs not approved for transplant (which is most of them)
and keeping them alive long enough to find a patient they can save... to the
tune of perhaps 2,000 lungs and lives per year. That's pretty amazing.
Approved in Canada and awaiting FDA approval as well? That's incredible. I
couldn't find a news reports of their first rejuvenated lung, the article
doesn't really give much detail on how the procedure went.

Martine, I'm sure YC would want her at their Female Founder's Conference! ;-)

Some other interesting posts I found;

Martine Rothblatt - The Trans-Everything CEO
[http://nymag.com/news/features/martine-rothblatt-
transgender...](http://nymag.com/news/features/martine-rothblatt-transgender-
ceo/)

Book Review: Virtually Human by Martine Rothblatt
[http://hplusmagazine.com/2014/09/09/book-review-virtually-
hu...](http://hplusmagazine.com/2014/09/09/book-review-virtually-human-
martine-rothblatt/)

United Therapeutics Website [http://www.unither.com/](http://www.unither.com/)

~~~
softdev12
I just finished Virtually Human and would definitely recommend it. It makes a
very in depth analysis for why "conscious" computers of the future will
eventually want human rights - the same way that certain minority groups
fought for equal rights throughout history.

The book seems to argue that the likely future scenario is for humans to
replicate themselves in a separate computer entity. So people would have a
duplicate robot twin. Very little mention is left to addressing the case of
people actually merging with computers (so one entity and not two). I think
this case is far more likely.

------
downandout
_" The 60-year-old grandmother and CEO of United Therapeutics, the Silver
Spring-based biotech she founded to help save her younger daughter’s life,
banked $38 million last year. It made her the nation’s highest-paid female
executive."_

I find it hard to believe that $38 million made her the highest paid female
executive in the US. I would be stunned if this outpaced Sheryl Sandberg.
Interesting story nonetheless.

~~~
Lambdanaut
As a side-note, she's also a male->female transgender. I'm not personally
making any judgments here, but some people might consider her still a male,
and thus not the highest paid female exec.

It's more of an interesting factoid than anything, though.

~~~
jwise0
Anyone who considers her male is wrong.

Period.

If she is the highest paid female exec, then she is the highest paid female
exec.

~~~
patrickg_zill
If Rothblatt sent a DNA sample off to a DNA testing lab, would they detect the
sample as being from a male or a female?

(not that I really care all that much)

~~~
daeken
Male, because that's her genetic sex. Note that gender and sex are two
different, not necessarily correlated things. Sex is the sum of your physical
characteristics; gender is what you feel and/or identify as. She identifies as
a woman, and has in fact had sexual reassignment surgery (giving her most
female physical characteristics). She's a woman, and female.

~~~
patrickg_zill
One is something related to science ; the other is related to political or
social beliefs.

------
fit2rule
Yikes. The creep factor is very high in this article. I'm not sure I'm
comfortable with the fawning over what is arguably a potentially dangerous new
cult.

~~~
chwahoo
Interesting, I've heard people talk about transhumanism and singularitarianism
as similar to religions/cults, but those philosophies aren't usually presented
with an explicitly spiritual/religious component. It sounds from the article
like the Terasim Movement does try to add a religious component (the profile
suggests elements of Judaism). A light skim over the Terasim Movement website
([http://www.terasemmovementfoundation.com](http://www.terasemmovementfoundation.com))
doesn't seem to reveal much about that religious component, although this
video ([http://vimeo.com/100518959](http://vimeo.com/100518959)) has a
nebulously "spiritual" feel to it.

Do you think this cult is dangerous because you believe all cults/religions
are, or do you see something particularly worrisome here?

~~~
fit2rule
I think the desire to form an organization which has the purpose of
interfering with life at a fundamental level is quite dangerous, particularly
since it seems focused around the desires - and thoughts - of a single
individual. The creation of alternate-to-nature/-robot life is, arguably,
another way to build yourself a slave colony.

------
bvm
United Therapeutics are a strange company. In 2010, they released a supplement
to their annual report in comic book form -
[http://files.shareholder.com/downloads/UTHR/1290392365x0x466...](http://files.shareholder.com/downloads/UTHR/1290392365x0x466310/3ac92701-7658-49b1-a31e-67693969f01f/UTAR_2010_lo-
res.pdf)

And the following year, released it as a musical.

~~~
gcb0
i would be extremely worried if a company im investing did this. as much as it
is not, it does at least seems like diversion tactics.

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joshstrange
Without the Oxford comma I read that as SiriusXM being "a religion and a
biotech for starters", I was pretty confused until I red the article and
realized my mistake.

~~~
NotOscarWilde
But even with the comma there's still the intepretation of SiriusXM being a
religion, right? (ESL speaker here; that's how I might interpret it.)

~~~
PeterWhittaker
Yes, that is true. Short statements inside pairs of commas are sometimes
parenthetical asides, descriptions of the previous term/expression.

All hail the ambiguity of the spoken word....

~~~
dragonwriter
> All hail the ambiguity of the spoken word....

But this is actually about the (lesser, but still present) ambiguity of the
written word.

------
psygnisfive
Oh wow, I saw the United Therapeutics HQ in Silver Spring being built, walked
around it a bunch when it was done, thought it was a cool building, etc. and
had _no_ idea it was Rothblatt's company. Neat!

